PlayStation was offered the exclusive rights to FIFA in the 90s instead of EA, but turned down the deal
That has been revealed FIFA could have been owned by PlayStation instead of EA in the 1990s, had Sony not decided to decline the rights.
In a interview with TimeExtensionEA’s former vice president of European marketing, Tom Stone, stated that prior to the renewal of the FIFA license in 1997 he met with Chris Deering, who was president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe at the time. At that point, Deering told him that Sony had acquired the rights from ISL (which was handling the case). FIFA licenses at the time), which Stone was “really angry” about – the deal was apparently offered without EA’s knowledge.
“Chris Deering met with me and said, ‘We’ve been given the rights to FIFA football‘. I said, ‘You must be joking. Serious? ISL has approached you with the question whether you would like an exclusive, worldwide license for this FIFA? After all we’ve done for them?” Stone said.
However, Deering told him that he would not agree to the offer: “Chris said to me, ‘I won’t sign that deal unless you can’t come to terms with it.’ FIFA. That’s your deal. You created that.’”
Stone speculated that Deering probably considered how much support EA gave PlayStation when he came to the decision to turn it down.
Decades later, it’s impossible to know for sure how things would have gone if Sony had had a different opinion on the matter. In the same interview, Stone said he thought “EA would have reacted pretty badly” if PlayStation had accepted the deal.
The latest installment in the EA Sports football series, EA SportsFC24was released late last month on Xbox One, Xbox Series|S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo switch, and PC. It is the studio’s first football match since the studio split FIFA name and brand.
If you’re looking for new game recommendations, be sure to check out our lists of the best PS5 games And best pc games.