Take-Two boss says making a 2K FIFA game that can compete with EA Sports FC would be ‘incredibly difficult’

Ever since EA revealed it was dropping its FIFA license, there have been rumors that arch-rival 2K Sports is planning to pick up the baton and create its own soccer sim. But in today’s earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that any potential competitor to EA Sports FC would face a host of complications.

“I’ll just say that the FIFA license doesn’t come with any rights; it doesn’t come with any players or teams or leagues,” Zelnick said. “So it’s not as simple as negotiating with, say, the NFL, or the NBA, or MLB, where you’re just negotiating with a league and a players’ association. So anyone who wants to compete in the straight ahead sim environment for soccer… you don’t just have to go after one specific brand license, there’s a lot more to it than that.”

Unlike American leagues like the NFL, international soccer is a complex web of teams, leagues, tournaments and players, many of which require individual negotiation. EA has largely cornered the market in this regard, securing the rights to the Premier League, La Liga and other popular franchises with EA Sports FC. Konami spent years attempting to undermine EA’s dominance with Pro Evolution Soccer before eventually moving to free-to-play eFootball, leaving EA largely unchallenged in the soccer market.

EA dropped its FIFA license in 2022 amid reports that the organization, which serves as the governing body for the world’s various national associations, was charging more than $1 billion per four-year World Cup cycle. EA renamed the series to EA Sports FC in 2023 with relatively few changes. There has since been speculation that Take-Two would pick up the FIFA license, but numerous questions remain over how it would handle the licensing of various teams and leagues.

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Zelnick pointed out that there are big potential rewards for developing a successful sim. “We’re very aware that it’s incredibly hard to build a great sim experience for console, it takes a lot of time, and if you do it right, your users are very loyal and very embedded.”

College Football 25, which finally released to mass audiences last month, spent nearly four years in development as EA negotiated painstakingly with schools and players. Take-Two would face a similar challenge with a potential FIFA game, albeit without the added benefit of an established technology baseline unless it were to heavily reuse tech from NBA 2K. Asked what the success might mean for Take-Two, Zelnick said the company noted the revival’s success but had nothing to share about a potential return to college basketball, whether in NBA 2K or elsewhere.

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