Madden 23 release date player running with the ball

Alongside the name printed on the packaging, the new named game will also not have any official references in FIFA's World Cup Mut 23 Coins, the quadrennial international soccer tournament hosted by FIFA. EA partnered with FIFA to launch brand-named FIFA World Cup titles every four years between 1998 and 2014 and added a distinct World Cup mode to its extremely popular Ultimate Team digital card game for FIFA 14. The integration was expanded to more of a World Cup update in FIFA 18.

Reports suggest FIFA 23 -- which is due to launch later this year , EA's last game under the FIFA license--will expand it's World Cup mode and include the women's World Cup for the first time in franchise history. "Our final FIFA product will also include more game modes, features, teams and leagues, as well as players and competitions than in any previous version," EA said in a statement.

The EA split with FIFA isn't anything new. The gaming mega-publisher publicly said the company was "reviewing our Naming Rights Agreement with FIFA" in October of last year amid reports of clashes regarding the exclusivity of its licenses and costs for licensing. And a February report suggested that Wilson told EA personnel that the FIFA license has "precluded our possibility to branch into the areas where players are interested" as it relates to gaming.

The specific EA Sports FC branding isn't a surprise; the term was mentioned in trademark filings last year, and VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb confirmed the name in a March chat along with Giant Bomb.

The year before, The New York Times reported that FIFA demanded EA to increase its share of the $150 million that the publisher paid annually for the rights to the brand name. At the same time, EA was reportedly beginning to wonder if it was worth the money the FIFA name brought its popular game franchise.

"Basically what we get from FIFA during a non-World Cup year is the 4 letters that are on the outside of the box in a society where many people don't even look at the box anymore , because they can purchase the game digitally Buy Madden nfl 23 Coins," Wilson reportedly told employees in the November all-hands meeting.