EA has trademarked EA Sports FC.
Polygon (via VGC) spotted the trademark filing on the websites of the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
Last week, EA announced it was currently “exploring the idea of renaming” the long-running and mega-popular franchise.
“This means we’re reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA,” EA Sports boss Cam Weber said, “which is separate from all our other official partnerships and licenses across the football world.”
The trademark filings suggest next year’s game, which we had assumed to be called FIFA 23, may now go with the EA Sports FC title.
EA used EA SPORTS Football Club as the name of its FIFA live service experience since FIFA 12 in 2011, but it and its associated catalog of items were ditched for FIFA 21 last year.
EA has yet to comment.
Last week, Eurogamer published our big interview with EA on FIFA, Ultimate Team and its controversial loot boxes. Elsewhere, I imagined the future of FIFA Ultimate Team without pay-to-win loot boxes.
