EA delists old FIFA titles ahead of its new soccer game’s debut

EA has delisted all prior FIFA games from major storefronts, including Epic Games, Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PS5. The titles, up to and including FIFA 23, are no longer available for purchase. The move, which was first spotted by analyst MauroNL, comes just two days before the upcoming EA Sports FC 24 is set to release.

The content is not totally lost: FIFA 23 is still technically available to EA Play subscribers through its collection of legacy titles known as “The Play List.” Some DLC packs are also still available for purchase, per Kotaku’s reporting.

FC 24 will be the first iteration of EA’s annual soccer video game to lack the FIFA branding. Soccer fans got their first glimpse of gameplay during a livestreamed event earlier this summer. The game debuted in early access on September 22nd and is scheduled for a wider launch on September 29th.

EA officially parted ways with FIFA last year after CEO Andrew Wilson indicated that he was dissatisfied with the partnership in a leaked internal meeting. “Basically, what we get from FIFA in a non-World Cup year is the four letters on the front of the box,” Wilson said at the time. The federation had asked EA to pay $1 billion for exclusive rights to its brand, according to rumors.

Since the split, EA has inked a number of additional partnerships, including a multiyear deal with Spain’s LaLiga. Deals with the National Women’s Soccer League and Italian club Juventus have also been announced.

FIFA, for its part, appears to have no intention of leaving the video game space. It launched a mobile game called AI League in April of this year in partnership with the studio Altered State Machine. The title is purported to be part of an upcoming “portfolio of new future-focused Web 3.0 games” tied to the federation. So there’s also that.