A 2K FIFA Game Could Be The Competition EA Needs (2024)

When EA lost the rights to the FIFA naming rights, it didn't skip a beat. From FIFA 23, it rolled right into EA Sports FC 24 like nothing happened. Keeping its own engine and all of the FIFPro naming licenses, it's tough to see much of a difference between the two games. Many people still call it 'FIFA', a habit developed over three decades, but otherwise the momentum hasn’t been dinged by the name change. But maybe that’s about to change.

Recent rumours suggest that 2K is picking up the FIFA license to sit alongside its other sporting titles; NBA 2K, Top Spin 2K, WWE 2K, and Lego 2K Drive. 2K counts that last one, though I'm not sure I would. Amongst the three real sports, there are reasons to be hopeful for 2K's attempt at FIFA.

2K Makes Some Of The Best Sport Sims Out There

NBA 2K is, for my money, the closest contender to EA's FIFA/EA FC in terms of realistically and entertainingly recreating the sport it's about. Top Spin 2K also does a great job of depicting tennis, and while I'm not a wrestling fan, my understanding is WWE has improved of late. 2K, generally, is pretty good at making sports games.

But 'pretty good' is qualified. I reviewed Top Spin lowly because it lacks any sort of mode around just playing tennis - no tournament mode, no online with friends, no scenarios of any sort. NBA 2K, on the other hand, often over-eggs the story mode and mixes it with a strange MMO playground that was really just one big commercial for State Farm. 2K has also often looked to FIFA (EA's FIFA), to see which steps to follow - MyTeam is just Ultimate Team, and every online sports game is an inescapable pit of gambling and microtransactions.

So if 2K is given the keys to the FIFA kingdom, what will it do with it? Clearly, 2K is very good at recreating sports, and so FIFA 2K will likely be a good sports sim. But EA FC is a good sports sim. While its popularity and demands of huge cash investments garner anger and accusations the game is ‘broken’, it remains a contender for the best sports game in the world. That’s how high the bar for FIFA 2K is, and fans won’t give it a few years to get up to speed. It’s coming for the king, and it better not miss.

Can Any Game Catch Up To EA?

eFootball might earn it a bit of leeway. Pro Evo, a consistent FIFA competitor, had been gradually lagging further and further behind. When it went away to rebrand, it emerged from its chrysalis as eFootball, one of the worst sports sims the world had ever seen. FIFA 2K, if it exists, will likely fall between these two extremes, and seeing proof that it could have been worse may work in its favour.

It’s the stuff around the gameplay that concerns me. When it could not just copy what EA does in Top Spin, it replaced that with ‘nothing’. NBA 2K shows a bit more creativity with old legendary teams and some presentational flair, but with FIFA 2K it will need to provide alternatives to FIFA’s various modes, which seem to cover a lot of ground already. But if it does manage it, maybe EA will be forced into something beyond a copy and paste too.

If this story is true, FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s statement that the next FIFA will be “the best egame for any girl or boy” seems a lot less laughable. It’s still some ridiculous phrasing, but assuming more knowledgeable people are in charge of the gaming division than Infantino, having 2K in charge is the best chance of making an egame capable of taking on EA.