EA is reportedly rebranding its FIFA series as EA Sports Football Club.
The rumour comes via industry insider Jeff Grubb, who announced on his premium show that his sources claim the decision to change the name comes after issues with the football governing body the franchise is named after.
“EA Sports Football Club, EA Sports FC, that’s the name of the game,” Grubb said (thanks, VGC).
“I saw trademarks for it, I thought that could be just a feature like an online mode, [but] I asked around about it [and] that’s it, that’s the name.”
It follows reports last month that EA boss Andrew Wilson claimed in an internal meeting that the FIFA licence is “an impediment” to the publisher’s ambitions for the football series, claiming FIFA had precluded EA from expanding beyond the usual gameplay modes, or “broader digital ecosystems”, and the only value the FIFA licence brings in a non-World Cup year is “four letters on the front of the box”.