FIFA 2K25 will be released this year as Take-Two acquires a license claims retailer

The publisher of NBA 2K and WWE 2K is reportedly the new owner of the FIFA license and plans to release a new game this year.

E.A It would have seemed unfathomable a few years ago to stop making FIFA games, but from their point of view the transition from FIFA 23 to EA Sports 24 has been very smooth, with turnover increased by 25% despite the name change.

The reason they gave up the FIFA license is because FIFA itself asked for too much money and in reality got all you got for it A compensation of 1 billion dollars is the right to use the name and include the World Cup in your game.

EA decided it wasn't worth it, but FIFA immediately insisted they get someone else to make games. The only publisher ever seriously mentioned in connection with such a deal is Take-Two Interactive and it looks like they have now signed the license.

Rumors of Take-Two's involvement have been circulating from various sources for months, but the latest suggestion comes from retailer Mohplay, who confidently proclaims that '2K has secured the official license from FIFA to create the next FIFA video game! '

It offers no evidence for this and it's not clear whether the tweet was accidentally published early or if someone went crazy with the company's Twitter account.

“The partnership has been confirmed and 2K will develop a new football game series,” says the tweet. 'FIFA 2K25 is launching this year, just in time for the FIFA World Cup 2K26!'

While it's impossible to know exactly what happened behind the scenes, the first rumors that EA would scrap the FIFA license only emerged in end of 2021.

Even if 2K were careful (which they aren't) and started development at that point, that's still an incredibly short time to make a complex sports simulator.

There seem to be three obvious explanations: their developers burned the midnight oil and the rumor is true, the rumor is a complete lie, or there has been a misunderstanding.

It has long been rumored that 2K is also working with Lego on one family friendly football matchas a follow-up to their previous release Lego 2K Drive.

It would be very believable if that came out this year instead, especially since promotional material and an age list for it came out last year and then mysteriously there was no actual announcement.

Or maybe 2K will just throw caution to the wind and FIFA 2K25 will actually come out this year. They would certainly want to take advantage of the World Cup as that is the only significant advantage they have over EA, but the risks of making a bad first impression are significant.