It looks like EA is indeed rebranding its smash-hit FIFA franchise as EA Sports Football Club.
According to journalist and industry insider Jeff Grubb, the developer/publisher has allegedly internally approved the decision to change the soccer franchise's name.
"EA Sports Football Club, EA Sports FC, that's the name of the game," Grubb said on his premium show, Grubbsnax (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."
Although we can still only take it as a rumor right now - despite Grubb's other industry rumors being proven true as time goes on - it does fit with reports of EA struggling with soccer's governing body, not least because EA filed an application in the UK and the EU for something called 'EA Sports FC' last October, publicly stating that it was "exploring the idea of renaming [its] global EA Sports football games".
Interestingly enough, the trademarks were filed shortly before the company revealed it was "reviewing [its] naming rights agreement with FIFA, which is separate from all our other official partnerships and licenses across the football world". At the time, we were reminded that EA Sports Football Club was a FIFA social feature that ran from 2011 until 2020, so it was possibly connected to that. Now, however, it feels more likely that it may indeed be FIFA's new name.
Did you know that Konami's eFootball series has made the cut over FIFA for the Commonwealth Esports Championships line up later this year?
As Hirun posited at the time, it's an absolutely stunning announcement, not least because when eFootball debuted in September 2021, it was absolutely riddled with bugs, ugly player models, and clocked up abysmal Steam reviews. The new venture for what used to be Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series performed so badly that the developer apologized for it in the weeks following launch.
For those wondering, the other games joining eFootball in the Commonwealth Esports Championships in August are DOTA 2 and Rocket League.
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