In an alliance that was unthinkable just a couple of years ago, video game developer Konami and the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) signed an agreement to officially bring the World Cup into the field of electronic sports, specifically the title “eFootball” from the Japanese company.
Specifically, the alliance between Konami and FIFA focuses for now on of events titled FIFAe World Cup held in honor of the start of the Royal Tournament Qualifiers and with the aim of “further increasing the joy of the global football community through esports”.
The inaugural edition – available in the console and mobile version of the game – began on October 10 and features a selection of 18 countries, which were chosen by factors such as the number of players and “the previous performance of the competitors.” of the respective countries.”
The selected nations are Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Turkey. The new (electronic) world champion will emerge from these countries.
The meeting between Japanese developers and FIFA comes only two years after Electronic Arts (EA) ended its successful 30-decade collaboration with the football associationthrough which it came to dominate the soccer video game market after decades of fighting against the Konami franchises “Winning Eleven”/”Pro Evolution Soccer”, predecessors of “eFootball”.
It was this almost absolute control over this sector of the market that led EA to decide in 2022 to end the million-dollar agreement, announcing that “FIFA 23” would be the last game to bear the name of the association. Since then, the games published by this developer have been renamed “EA Sport FC” over the year.
For its part, FIFA has faced problems keeping its brand current in the video game market after its breakup with EA, turning to blockchain projects and even a collaboration with “Roblox” to stay relevant, so joining hands With what his former rival could not only be his opportunity to exact revenge, but also to recover past glory.