Following rumours about a partnership between 2K Sports and FIFA , Take-Two Interactive has put some doubt on it ever happening. EA has successfully transitioned into making football games without the FIFA licence, with EA Sports FC 24 still dominating in sales despite losing the official branding. The reason behind the fallout is the amount of money FIFA were asking for to use the licence ( roughly $1 billion ), but the football association has said it’s seeking a partnership with other studios to make an official FIFA football sim.
Since then, there’s been multiple rumours of a partnership with Take-Two Interactive, which has a history of sports games like NBA 2K. While it seemed like the obvious choice, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has spoken about the challenges of competing with EA in the console football space. When asked directly about the rumours of Take-Two acquiring the FIFA licence, in the company’s earnings call for the Q1 2024/25 fiscal year, Zelnick said: ‘Look, we’re in the soccer business.
We have the number one mobile soccer manager title in Top Eleven and we’re really happy that we do. ‘We’re also mindful that it’s incredibly difficult to build a great sim experience for console, it takes a long time, and if you do it right your users are very loyal and very embedded.’ In regards to FIFA specifically, he added: ‘I would just note with regards to the FIFA licence, it does not bring along with it rights; it doesn’t come with players, te.