Fans of EA’s annual football franchise, FIFA, were hit with some pretty substantial news that EA Sports is considering rebranding their insanely successful football franchise and cut ties with the global football organization. While EA hasn’t commented on what it might be potentially rebranded as, speculation was fueled further when reports revealed that the publisher has indeed filed for a new trademark “EA Sports FC”.
While initially, it might have sounded like that could be the rebrand and re-naming of the football franchise, it doesn’t quite sound like the name of a new FIFA or Football game from EA Sports. Instead, it sounds like EA Sports and considering bringing back the EASFC (EA Sports FC) Catalogue which was removed from the game in FIFA 21, and was missing in 22 as well.
EASFC could be coming back to FIFA, or whatever the football franchise will be called in the future
The EASFC Catalogue previously contained several in-game items which players could purchase with Football Club Credits (FCC), such as new Boots, Balls, MLS All-Star Team, and even items such as a Career mode Rematch, Financial Takeover (for Career Mode), and other such niceties. While the Catalogue itself was removed from FIFA 21, the items were available in other menus to make it more accessible to the player.
However, the EASFC was more than just a catalogue previously as in previous games EA Sports FC was essentially a quazi social platform where players could share their FUT content and interact with other players. With the filing of the new trademark “EA Sports FC”, perhaps EA could be considering bringing back EASFC in a future game, and perhaps even explore a metaverse-type situation in future iterations.
EA have expressed an interest in dropping the “FIFA” brand from their title, but that could have a major impact, especially on FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team), and seeing as it has always been EA’s most reliable money-maker, the publisher has to be treading carefully on this issue.
