FIFA announces a collaboration agreement with Konami and eFootball to continue in the eSports sector

Oct. 11 (Portaltic/EP) –

The FIFA has announced a collaboration with the video game developer Konami, with which it will celebrate two editions of the FIFA World Cuphand in hand with eFootball video gameafter ending its collaboration with Electronic Arts (EA) in 2022.

The FIFA and Electronic Arts maintained a collaboration in the development of the football saga of EA FIFA video games almost 30 years old, with which they managed to bring together more than 150 million players globally.

However, in May 2022 the sports organization and the video game studio announced the breaking of their collaboration agreement, being the title FIFA 23 the last video game they launched together. At the time, both companies detailed that they would continue to develop new titles independently.

As a result of this separation, EA renamed its football video game saga, which was renamed EA Sports FC and, in September of last year, removed all FIFA video games from digital storesbefore the launch of its latest title, EA Sports FC 24.

Now, the FIFA has announced a collaboration agreement with Konami to “continue its global commitment to the advancement of electronic sports” and, with this, has scheduled two editions of the FIFAe World Cupwhich will be carried out hand in hand with the video game eFootball.

This was announced in a joint statement, in which they stressed that the objective of this collaboration is ““To further increase the joy of the global football community through esports.”

Specifically, the qualifiers for the first FIFA World Cup began this Thursday globally. Likewise, as the organization has clarified, there will be held two competitionsone through console and another in mobile devicesso that the entire community can participate.

This first inaugural edition has the participation of 18 nations: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Turkey, from which a world champion will be crowned of FIFA.

As FIFA has clarified, these countries have been selected based on factors like your player base and “the previous performance of competitors from the respective countries”.

With all this, Konami has indicated that, through this collaboration with FIFA, they will be able contribute to the promotion of electronic football in “a new dimension”, as Konami’s senior executive director, Koji Kobayashi, has clarified.

It also represents progress for FIFA in the electronic sports sector, since the end of its collaboration agreement with EA. As stated in this regard by the commercial director, Romy Gai, This new collaboration allows the organization drive its mission to “promote football globally and provide a platform for players to showcase their skills.” All of this, through “an inclusive ecosystem that allows different communities to be part of FIFAe competitions,” he stated.