The FIFA license had been firmly in the hands of Electronic Arts since the 90s. However, things could have turned out very differently, as the license was initially offered exclusively to Sony, who declined out of respect for EA.
This was revealed by Tom Stone, EA's former Vice President of European Marketing, who had already done a great deal to establish football as a video game. Had Sony acquired the license back then, it would have felt like theft.
gegenüber TimeExtension Stone said:
“Chris Deering [the then-president of Sony PlayStation Europe] met with me and said, ‘We’ve been offered the rights to FIFA Soccer.’ I said, ‘This has to be a joke. Seriously? ISL approached Sony and asked if they wanted an exclusive worldwide license for FIFA? After everything we’ve done for them?’ I was really upset. But Chris said to me, ‘I’m not going to sign this contract unless you can’t get along with FIFA. This is your deal. You made this.’”
At the time, PlayStation was more focused on its good relationship with EA and what EA could do for PlayStation. They saw the bigger picture rather than just acquiring another license. Stone believes that if Sony had accepted the license back then, EA would have been quite upset.
EA had wanted to get rid of the FIFA license for some time.
EA has since abandoned the FIFA license, stating that it had become far too expensive. These considerations had been discussed previously, but apparently EA's marketing department was too afraid of losing brand recognition.
For EA, the move away from FIFA is now paying off enormously, with their new brand EA Sports FC. extremely successful start FIFA, on the other hand, wants to establish its own football game, about which nothing further has been heard since.
