Are FIFA Games Making a Comeback Now?

With the second-largest deal in the gaming industry, PIF has secured control of US game publisher Electronic Arts, the number one in sports games. GM editor-in-chief Stephan Steininger believes this will have consequences.

The ink on the contracts is still fresh. And yet, the second-largest acquisition the gaming industry has ever seen comes as little surprise. This is partly because rumours about the acquisition of Electronic Arts by Saudi Arabia's PIF have been rife since Friday. But even aside from that, it has to be said that EA is simply a good match for PIF and Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has been making a name in many areas and industries for years. Sports and gaming are among them. Electronic Arts, in turn, is more successful in the sports gaming sector than any other publisher with its games such as Madden, EA Sports FC, and F1. When the Saudi-Arabian-financed publisher Savvy Group announced its intention to acquire at least one established publisher in the coming years, I, like many other industry observers, immediately thought of Electronic Arts. Because it's a perfect match, but also because Savvy CEO Brian Ward himself was a senior manager at EA for many years.

Incidentally, one of Ward's tasks at EA was to build and expand the studio in Vancouver, the very studio responsible for the EA Sports FC games, which were still called FIFA at the time. For me, however, this is one of the possible consequences that could result from the purchase agreement: EA and FIFA, which parted ways after almost 30 years of mutually beneficial cooperation, primarily for FIFA, could find their way back to each other through the mediation of Saudi Arabia. In fact, FIFA has not yet managed to produce its own soccer simulation game with FIFA as name.

I myself speculated in a comment (in German) at the time that FIFA would collaborate with the Savvy Games Group. On the one hand, because it has the necessary resources, and on the other, because Ward is likely to have sufficient contacts with developers with the relevant expertise. So, in a way, my speculation at the time could turn out to be correct, even if not in the way I had imagined.

However, whether Savvy Games Group and Electronic Arts will eventually merge is likely to be much more decisive for the market and the US industry than the question of whether FIFA games will return. Today's announcement does not suggest that this will happen, at least. But that doesn't have to be the case forever.

And what happens if it does? At this point, that would be pure speculation. Of course, there is a risk that Saudi Arabia, as the owner, could influence the products and content of the games. But ultimately, that applies to every owner of every company and does not necessarily have to mean a bad thing at all. In the end, it is the gamers who decide which games will be successful and which will not. So if a studio develops games that do not appeal to gamers, that company will not be successful, regardless of who finances it. From this perspective, the deal is certainly a game changer in the gaming market, the consequences of which should be observed but not yet judged or condemned.