Door kept open for 2K FIFA soccer game, but Take-Two doesn’t seem eager

CEO rightfully questions license value

Take-Two Interactive

Rumors around a potential partnership between 2K and FIFA have been swirling ever since the global soccer association parted ways with longtime partner EA. Asked about these rumors on Take-Two Interactive’s most recent earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick didn’t outright close the door on such a collaboration, but seemed pretty lukewarm about it.

Zelnick pointed out that Take-Two had a successful soccer game in the form of Zynga’s mobile title Top Eleven and said that “it’s incredibly difficult to build a great sim experience for console.”

However, he admitted that the potential rewards for doing so were great: “If you do it right, your users are very loyal and very embedded.” At the same time, this could be taken as a warning to investors – EA Sports has ‘done it right’ for many years and is currently benefiting from exactly the effect the CEO is describing. Naturally, it’d be enormously difficult to dislodge the rival from this position.

Zelnick rightfully emphasized that soccer is very different from the US-centric franchise sports 2K normally deals with when it comes to licensing. “It’s not as simple as negotiating with the NFL, NBA, or MLB where, at most, you have to negotiate with a league and a players association,” he explained.

Getting the FIFA license “doesn’t come with players, teams, or leagues” – which would all be needed to compete in the space, Zelnick emphasized. One of the reasons why EA Sports was able to easily shrug off losing FIFA as a partner is its tight rein on individual player and league licenses. For users there wasn't really any change aside from the series' name becoming EA Sports FC.

EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson famously remarked during an internal meeting ahead of the divorce that the FIFA license in the end comes down to “four letters on a box,” sardonically adding that most people didn’t even see the box anymore in the age of digital purchases.

Zelnick ended his remarks about the topic by praising the existing line-up of sports games the company has to offer, concluding with a neutral statement that certainly leaves open the doors for pretty much anything: “I’m sure we will make more announcements in due course.”

Is Zelnick genuinely unenthusiastic about a FIFA partnership – frankly, no one could blame him considering the organization’s well-known corruption issues and high asking price – or is he playing hard to get to boost his negotiation position for the next round of talks? We obviously can’t say for sure. The rumors, though, will probably persist.

Take-Two doesn’t really depend on a FIFA deal in any case: It confirmed the release windows for GTA 6 and Civilization 7 and reported great financial results in the latest quarter.