FIFA has announced that Konami is its new partner for the FIFAe World Cup esports event, replacing former partner EA, with whom FIFA parted ways back in 2022.
According to a GamesIndustry.biz report, the free-to-play football (sorry, but I'm going to be saying "football" throughout rather than "soccer") game eFootball will now be the game in which the esports World Cup takes place.
Naturally, prior to this partnership, that honor went to EA's FIFA series, but that franchise was renamed to EA Sports FC following the split between EA and FIFA. A reason for the split was technically never officially revealed, although it was reported that a licensing fee dispute was the cause.
The GamesIndustry.biz report states that two eFootball FIFAe World Cups will be held this year, one in the mobile version and the other on consoles.
A total of 18 countries have been invited to take part, including England, France, Brazil, and Portugal, among others. The champion will be named at the conclusion of each tournament.
Konami senior executive officer Koji Kobayashi says he's grateful to FIFA for giving Konami the opportunity to play host to the FIFAe World Cup, and that it looks forward to sharing the "enthusiasm, excitement, and joy" of players worldwide.
FIFA CBO Romy Gai, meanwhile, says the association is "incredibly excited" to team up with Konami, and that the partnership is part of FIFA's "mission to promote football globally".
It should be noted that this decision doesn't mean Konami is FIFA's new partner for continuing the FIFA video game franchise; assuming that FIFA still intends to create a game to take on EA Sports FC, the studio it's partnering with hasn't been announced yet.
Still, FIFA's decision to partner with the studio that created the game which was, at one point, Steam's worst-rated game of 2021 is perhaps a touch questionable. The game still holds a Mixed rating on Steam, although in fairness, so does EA Sports FC 25.
Elsewhere in Konami news, the company's gaming CEO Steve Sutherland was recently handed a trade association award for "excellence in commercial gaming professionalism". Did you know that was a real award? I sure didn't!
