Last year, we witnessed a big breakup when, after many years of cooperation, Electronic Arts and the International Federation of Association Football did not renew their contract. The situation is interesting, however, because many years ago PlayStation could have obtained a license for the FIFA series games.
The editors of Timeextension presented a very interesting topic of the relationship between EA and FIFA – during a conversation with Tom Stone, former vice-president of marketing for EA in Europe, the topic of renewing the license in 1997 came up, because Sony was given the opportunity to buy the rights to the FIFA brand at that time .
Chris Deering [then president of Sony PlayStation Europe] met me and said, “We’ve been offered the rights to FIFA Soccer.” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Seriously? ISL approached you and asked if you would like to receive an exclusive, worldwide license for FIFA? After everything we’ve done for her?” “I was really pissed off,” Tom Stone said.
It is certainly worth mentioning here that FIFA did not directly deal with game licenses, and ISL was responsible for this department, which decided to take advantage of the opportunity and, behind Electronic Arts’ back, contacted the European branch of PlayStation and offered them exclusive rights to FIFA series games.
Electronic Arts couldn’t believe that ISL decided to reach an agreement with PlayStation behind its back, but Chris Deering wanted to be loyal to EA and decided not to cooperate.
But Chris told me: ‘I won’t sign this deal unless you can’t reach an agreement with Fifa. This is your deal. You created it.” Of course, Chris was looking “big picture” at the support EA has given PlayStation around the world. But I think it would be an interesting conversation if Sony signs this deal. I think EA would react badly to this.”
The whole thing is interesting, however, because at that time PlayStation had its own series of games for football fans – Adidas Power Soccer. Psygnosis was developing the production, but probably due to the lack of a license it could not directly compete with EA titles. However, it is easy to imagine that Sony would have the opportunity to defeat Electronic Arts and create a real giant.
Source: Timeextension