FIFA

FIFA is a long-running football video game series published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. Its first installment, FIFA International Soccer, was released in 1993 for the Sega Genesis, Super NES, and other platforms. Unlike many earlier football games, it presented players from an isometric viewpoint and used licensed national teams, helping it stand out in a crowded sports market. The game launched near the 1994 FIFA World Cup, although it did not include the official tournament license in the way later editions would. FIFA 95 expanded the series with club teams, while FIFA 96 introduced a more advanced three-dimensional engine on some platforms and used real player names through FIFPro licensing. FIFA 97 added indoor football, and FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 centered on qualification for the 1998 tournament in France. Its soundtrack, including Blur’s “Song 2,” became especially memorable, and the game offered every FIFA member nation at the time, making its international scope unusually broad. The series later developed a substantial career mode. In FIFA 07, players could manage a club, negotiate transfers, develop squads, and pursue domestic and European success across multiple seasons. FIFA 09 introduced FIFA Ultimate Team as downloadable content, allowing users to assemble squads from collectible player cards. That mode eventually became one of the franchise’s central features, built around chemistry, transfer markets, squad-building challenges, and online competition. Its popularity also generated criticism because card packs could be purchased with real money. FIFA 16 added women’s national teams for the first time, initially including twelve teams such as the United States, Germany, England, and France. FIFA 19 introduced the UEFA Champions League and Europa League after EA’s licensing agreement with UEFA. FIFA 22 used HyperMotion technology on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia, drawing on motion-captured eleven-a-side matches to influence animation. FIFA 23, released in 2022, was the final game carrying the FIFA name after EA and FIFA ended their licensing partnership. It featured women’s club football through the Barclays Women’s Super League and Division 1 Arkema, the men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments, and cross-play across several platform generations. EA’s successor, EA Sports FC 24, arrived in 2023 without the FIFA branding, but retained many leagues, clubs, players, and competitions through separate licensing agreements. Thus, FIFA’s history is not merely a sequence of annual roster updates: it traces the shift from a compact international football simulation into a globally connected platform combining career management, licensed competitions, online services, and commercially significant collectible-card systems.