FIFA 23 was announced for Stadia earlier this week. And, whilst this is undeniably brilliant news, there could be more to it than meets the eye.
Back in 2020 when Stadia and EA first announced their partnerships, it was stated that EA would be bringing 5 games to the platform. Over the following 2 years, the community waited with baited breath to see what these games would be. It would eventually transpire that they were Jedi Fallen Order, Madden 21 and 22, FIFA 21 and 22.
Then, in June of this year, Stadia was, unfortunately, nowhere to be seen on the Madden 23 launch trailer. This led to some disappointment among the Stadia community – both among Madden players and non Madden players alike. Certainly fans of the FIFA franchise were concerned as it looked like it could possibly be the end of the line for EA’s Stadia support.
Thankfully the FIFA 23 announcement have put those concerns to rest and silenced the naysayers. It also has me, personally, excited about the future!
As mentioned earlier, EA only committed to bringing 5 games to Stadia. As we didn’t know what they would be, everyone had their hopes on what they would see. Myself? I was vocal about hoping The Sims 4 would be one of the 5. Alas, it hasn’t come (yet at least).
As FIFA 23 is now the 6th game from EA on the platform. This, in my opinion, means one of two things: Stadia’s cheque book is still open, or EA is taking Stadia seriously.
The Open Cheque Book
The original 5 EA games were clearly bankrolled by Stadia. As a new contender in the gaming space, it is very unlikely that EA approached Stadia and begged to be allowed to bring some games over. It is more likely that they negotiated a deal. Stadia will pay (likely in the form of a revenue guarantee) $XXXX for Y number of games. Maybe EA decided on the titles. Maybe Stadia did. We will never know. If Stadia did blow the dust off the chequebook and make another deal with EA, I imagine the imminent Mexico expansion would have played a part here. Mexico is a huge follower of football – or soccer for my stateside friends.
Having FIFA on the platform when it expands to this new market would no doubt help bring additional players on board.
So, it is possible that after seeing FIFA’s success on the platform, both from the player count (see our Stadia Stats where we know over 22,000 Stadians have gone into Seasons mode on FIFA 22) and the hype (e.g. when they tested the waters with a poll letting twitter followers decide which game sees a discount, FIFA was an overall winner), Stadia were keen to keep the players happy and actively sought out a new deal (or executed an option in the original deal) to ensure FIFA comes. Perhaps they thought they could even recoup their revenue promises.
The question is, if this is the route that Stadia has gone down, what other games would they see value in paying for? Are we going to see other big titles drop on the platform to boost the success in the new markets? Well, we are getting the highly anticipated Saints Row. Could this be a result of the reopening of the chequebook?
New Interest From EA
There is no doubt that Stadia has grown a lot since launch. It is not unthinkable that EA is now viewing the platform as a viable product and willing to bring games of their own accord. Perhaps previous FIFA versions have sold enough copies (and in-game purchases) to justify its own existence. Porting games costs and takes time. Without knowing how well a game would or platform would do, it may be hard to justify the investment. XBOX and Playstation do not (always at least) pay for big games to come to the platform because publishers know their costs will be recouped by the number of copies sold there. Are we starting to see this happen for EA on Stadia?
If this is the case, then there is a strong possibility of more games coming from EA. As FIFA’s success is no guarantee that other games would succeed (FIFA is the biggest sports franchise in gaming) we are unlikely to see a sudden influx of every EA title to date. However, it isn’t out of the question to think that we may see some titles drip on to the platform as they test the support for other titles. Personally, I would think that they would bring one or two of their biggest selling, highest profit, titles. Games that they know always sell well and have a dedicated player base. But also from a business sense, they will be looking at titles that bring in a lot of revenue over time.
What About The Money?
FIFA doesn’t have to sell millions of copies to make money as dedicated players will spend a small fortune on FIFA Ultimate Team consistently over the course of the year. So, even if FIFA only sells a fraction of the number of copies that another game does, it is still likely that FIFA would make more money per player. So, perhaps a popular title with DLC may be the way to go. And yes, I am just trying to justify and drop hints here from my own bias. The Sims 4 has a lot of add on content and has been a popular game for decades! Of course EA should bring Sims. It just makes sense (nudge to anyone at EA reading this)!
A Farewell To Stadia?
Finally, there is always the possibility that with this being the last EA football game to bear the FIFA branding, that EA simply wanted to end on a high and have it available absolutely everywhere. But, the chance of future EA titles hitting Stadia is still low. For me, this is an unlikely scenario. EA developers have the tools at hand now to bring games to Stadia and they know the platform and the performance. And, corporations rarely do things for sentimental purposes. On top of that, as EA steps away from FIFA but commits to bringing a yearly football game, they will want to give this new game the best chance possible. And how do you do that? By making it available to as many people as possible. I would put money on this game arriving next year. If it doesn’t I will eat my Stadia controller and get a Sega Saturn tattoo.
Disclaimer:
I don’t want to fill people with false hope. So as excited as the news of FIFA 23 has gotten me, for more than one reason, the article is based on nothing more than speculation. We don’t know what the full story is here and will have to wait for it to play out. Don’t take this as a sure sign that Apex Legends is coming or that we will get every EA game day and date. My speculation is as good as yours.
Let us know what EA game you would like to see brought to Stadia in the comments below.
