How FIFA was outplayed by Electronic Arts
The video-game publisher called the football chiefs’ bluff—and won
A new football season will begin on September 27th: not the Premier League or La Liga, but the annual update of the world’s favourite football video-game. “FIFA”, as the franchise was known from its pixelated debut in 1993, sells nearly 30m copies a year. In-game spending pushes its annual revenue above $3bn, estimates MoffettNathanson, a firm of analysts, which calculates that the title contributes nearly two-thirds of the profit of its publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). Gaming has few bigger names than “FIFA”.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “It’s in the game”
Business September 21st 2024
More from Business
DeepSeek poses a challenge to Beijing as much as to Silicon Valley
The story of Liang Wenfeng, the model-maker’s mysterious founder
Nvidia is in danger of losing its monopoly-like margins
But don’t count it out yet
DeepSeek sends a shockwave through markets
A cheap Chinese language model has investors in Silicon Valley asking questions
Germans are world champions of calling in sick
It’s easy and it pays well
Knowing what your colleagues earn
The pros and cons of greater pay transparency
A $500bn investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities
It’s build, baby, build