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[Rumor] Fifa 18 partnership goes to Sony?

bombshell

Member
Seems like everyone is jumping on board with Sony right now.

Fifa (if this is true)
Call of Duty,
Red Dead Redemption 2,
Star Wars Battlefront 2,
Destiny 2,
Lawbreakers,
Far Cry 5,

Sony seem to have most of the big 3rd party games on board, seems like the total reverse of last gen, when it was always 360 that got most of the deals.

Yeah, it's getting pretty lopsided with all the big hitters being secured by Sony, excluding AC.

Shadow of Mordor is not in the same league as CoD, Red Dead, Battlefront, Destiny or FIFA. It's maybe comparable to Far Cry.
 

thenameDS

Member
Hope legends somehow stay on Xbox so both platforms will have them going forward. Really don't want to play FIFA on my PS4, the controller just isn't for me.

However, if legends and other exclusive FUT promos go to only PlayStation then it will be a massive deal. I can see most YouTubers/Streamers move onto the PS4. And FUT is HUGE!
 

firelogic

Member
Why not Nintendo? You'd think they would want to advertise the portability

Even if Nintendo paid the same amount (or even more) as Sony, why would EA go with a platform that just released with a limited audience that traditionally didn't buy Fifa games vs one that's sold 60+ million units currently and has traditionally bought Fifa games in droves?
 

jelly

Member
Is MS giving up on marketing deals or something?

I doubt even more money from Microsoft would work, certainly too much to make it worth doing for Microsoft. Publishers are choosing Sony because they have the bigger marketshare. Microsoft kept EA sweet at the beginning of this gen as anyone with a brain would think Microsoft wouldn't screw up the Xbox One, times up, they've set up better deals for their IPs.

I think Microsoft made a billion Xbox One FIFA bundles. They are still trying to flog them.
 
Pleases me as an Xbox gamer tbh

Much rather see them put their money into the platform and service and let this do the talking as opposed to marketing deals. Get the impression this is Phil Spencer's thinking too

It doesnt please me at all. They were putting their money into the platform with 360 as well, it never stopped them from getting marketing deals at the same time.

There were a lot of good exclusive games on 360 and they also had marketing deals. This time around, they just seem asleep at the wheel when it comes to marketing deals. It looks like that Tomb Raider really scared them off, which is stupid of them.

Wake up microsoft.
 
?

Kinda a no brainer, don't you think? Especially since the move towards E-Sports has been so aggressive by them.

Switch doesn't even seem to get Fifa 18. They'll get a custom-made version, maybe that will have Nintendo marketing during commercials if EA can be arsed.
 
Anyone that thinks publishers are giving these marketing deals to Sony by default need a reality check. That's not how it works, especially not with huge third party brands. Sony is paying for the privilege, make no mistake about it.

I don't know why Microsoft isn't picking up these marketing deals, you'd think they'd be doubling down on them given the state of their first party and the fact they've got a new console iteration to promote, but Spencer has consistently talked about scaling back on these third party deals. Maybe it's to invest more in first party, maybe the costs outweighed the benefits, or maybe it's both, or neither, or whatever possible reasons out there - whatever it is, more power to Sony. They're still consistently putting out great first party offerings and exclusives, and so long that remains unchanged, this is only a plus.

I would hope the reason Microsoft isn't coping any of these deals is to focus on first party, I'm doubtful of that, but one could hope. They've completely lost me as a customer, but I still want them to stick around and give Sony stiff competition wherever and however possible.
 

Calm Mind

Member
Even if Nintendo paid the same amount (or even more) as Sony, why would EA go with a platform that just released with a limited audience that traditionally didn't buy Fifa games vs one that's sold 60+ million units currently and has traditionally bought Fifa games in droves?

It has nothing to do with install base. It's all about who is willing to pay the most.
 

Nev

Banned
Why not Nintendo? You'd think they would want to advertise the portability

Because the Switch is at less than 5 million units sold and the PS4, the biggest console in Europe (main market for the game), is at +40, basically.

Oh and because the Switch isn't getting FIFA 18, too.

I can't tell what's sarcasm or not anymore with the Switchers.

Pleases me as an Xbox gamer tbh

Much rather see them put their money into the platform and service and let this do the talking as opposed to marketing deals. Get the impression this is Phil Spencer's thinking too

What about the marketing deal with Shadow of Mordor? As an "Xbox gamer" surely you are aware of it?
 

RdN

Member
Because they're still losing by a gigantic
Margin?

Probably.

Sony wasn't losing by this much last gen when they gave up third party deals and focused on first party, and it worked out great for them in the long run.

Microsoft is just following the same template.
 
Sure, they do it now that they are leading.

A better comparisson would be with last gen's Sony, when they were in third place.

Back then, Microsoft had almost all third party marketing deals.

Sony did what Microsoft is doing now. Focused on building a strong 1P line up.

The thing is, MS have never shown that can even deliver games as strong as Sonys 1party. God of War, LOU2, Uncharted 4, etc these games are in a completely different league than what MS offer.

Im a MS guy and even i know theyre in serious trouble in terms of 'games'. You dont have any right now so get marketing deals to make up for it. But they do neither, no marketing deals and no first party. Yes, okay.... Forza doesnt cut it, neither does crackdown or sea of thieves. Those are good to have on top of the really amazing games. Their not gonna be system sellers which is why marketing deals are crucial.

Theyre doing a horrible job right now. Horrible.
 

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
It has nothing to do with install base. It's all about who is willing to pay the most.

Install base absolutely comes into it. If each company offered the same amount of cash, EA (and others) would still go for PlayStation seeing as it's 2:1 worldwide. Especially for a game like FIFA which is very Europe-centric, where the PS4 is dominating the competition.

If fucking Pornhub or McDonald's weighed in with even more money, EA would swerve it because it harms the game in the long term.
 

oti

Banned
Probably.

Sony wasn't losing by this much last gen when they gave up third party deals and focused on first party, and it worked out great for them in the long run.

Microsoft is just following the same template.

Or they focus their spending on second party deals.
 
Nope.

It's a mix between Sony offering more money/MS not offering enough and Sony having bigger marketshare.



Maybe investing in first party, like everybody shouts them to do?

These are marketing dollars not game development dollars and for mega corps like sony and MS it's unlikely they are coming out of the same pot. It's not like Sony had to decide between a FIFA partnership or making Socom 5.
 
Why would Nintendo pay to promote a game not releasing on their system? :p

The partnership with Sony is probably the reason why the Switch version is not named Fifa2018.

But I can see that EA regrets this deal in the future, Fifa on Switch has the potential to be very big.
 
If true this will mainly affect the UK market, where the FIFA co-marketing certainly helped the Xbox One a lot. Looking at the split in GfK threads, it's pretty clear the FIFA bundle have been the best selling unit for the Xbox One there. So if the FIFA bundle is turning into a PS4 bundle from this year, this is quite significant for Sony's leadership. I'm not sure this picture is enough to conclude that the partnership with MS is over though, but we will know that pretty soon I guess.

Even last year in the UK Sony did their best to piss on the Xbox/FIFA parade. They chose FIFA 17 launch day to shift all their OG PS4 stock for £150 and gave away free copies of FIFA with them.
 
Yeah, Microsoft really seems asleep at the wheel when it comes to this. Like, what the fuck are they doing?

They're done competing with the PS4 on this scale and hope for the Scorpio to be a success and to grow, by which time they'll leverage the Scorpio userbase against that of the PS5 to potentially ink these sort of deals. But then again Sony could always stave off the Scorpio with the PS4pro until the PS5 arrives and hits its stride. But all this hardware talk, software is still king. If MS can build a stronger 1st party ecosystem, they're good.
 

Calm Mind

Member
Install base absolutely comes into it. If each company offered the same amount of cash, EA (and others) would still go for PlayStation seeing as it's 2:1 worldwide. Especially for a game like FIFA which is very Europe-centric, where the PS4 is dominating the competition.

If fucking Pornhub or McDonald's weighed in with even more money, EA would swerve it because it harms the game in the long term.

Really? If so, why not make FIFA available to mobile and PC first and then consoles?
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Losing that FUT Legends deal on xbox will be a big loss. Seems like everyone is jumping ship. I wonder of it will swing back the other way after Scorpio is out and we know how the land lies with adoption rates.

So I wonder if Sony still think EA Access isn't value for me.
 

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
Really? If so, why not make FIFA available to mobile and PC first and then consoles?

Because mobile is obviously a different product and FIFA is infinitely more popular on consoles. Are you being deliberately obtuse or do you seriously not understand that FIFA is different on mobile than it is elsewhere?
 

nampad

Member
I don't think the marketing deal matters anymore with us being several years into the generation already. The FIFA fans already decided on which platform they are playing and new buyers will get the platform their friends have.

In Europe, Fifa on PS4 was probably dominating Fifa on Xbox anyway.
 

madmackem

Member
it might not be entirely up to them. Sony has such a huge lead in market share, especially in countries where Fifa is a growing brand.
This, people forget outside of USA and uk Xbox brand is weak and the console just doesn't really sell, football is a global sport and PlayStation sells worldwide you'd be daft not to go with that over the limited reach of Xbox.
 
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