What do EA get out of the deal though? Made sense when they were launching the series back in the days the Sega Megadrive, now it's just an incredibly expensive albatross round their neck. FIFA are so corrupt the association is negative. Why would you pay for that? In a saner world FIFA would be paying EA for sponsorship to launder their image!

How can it be an albatross if it's been a profitable franchise with Coca-Cola level name recognition globally?

Recent developments around the Qatar World Cup and various other scandals have toxified the brand

https://www.ft.com/content/dd1d016f-5263-4161-bb4b-af7968abd...

Yeah in terms of greed it's really hard to say which of these two parties I detest more.

> since most of the value of these games is in the name

People will buy the EA football game, the name does not matter.

I think people will generally buy the game that has the real teams and players.

I believe the falling through of this FIFA deal does not (severely) impact that as EA has agreements with all governing bodies separately (Premier League, Bundesliga etc.)

I am not sure if they can now still have the national teams?

They can't license the World Cup, so I think national teams are out as well, as they're under the FIFA umbrella.

Yes for sure I assume they keep their other licensing agreeements.

I think having the team names and player names is what gets people to buy that particular game (assuming they all play well)