EA’s FIFA Games May Be a Thing of the Past, But Rematch Could Pick Up the Slack

In 1993, EA teamed up with FIFA to develop a new soccer game for the Sega Genesis called FIFA International Soccer. The game was an unprecedented success, as it sold more than 500,000 copies in the first four weeks after its release. Due to it being the first-ever video game to feature the FIFA branding, EA had already expected FIFA International Soccer to be a hit, but it exceeded even the company’s lofty sales goals.

FIFA International Soccer became the start of what would later be known as the FIFA video game franchise, a property which ultimately managed to surpass all of its competitors in popularity. The FIFA series has, without a doubt, turned into EA’s most successful sports franchise of all time, with it selling over 325 million copies worldwide as of 2021. In spite of this astounding success, though, EA’s partnership with FIFA abruptly came to an end in 2022, after the publisher announced that year that it would no longer be using the FIFA license in its future games. While EA does still make soccer titles under a new name, the FIFA franchise is now effectively dead and buried. However, the FIFA branding could still be utilized for games in other ways, namely via Sloclap’s Rematch​​​​​​.

Rematch Could Capitalize on EA’s Decision to Abandon the FIFA License

Rematch is One of the Few Modern Non-EA Soccer Games That Actually Found Big Success

Unlike the Sega Genesis era of yesteryear, the number of soccer games on the home console market these days is sorely limited. Although there are a handful of non-EA games in the genre, there aren’t many true FIFA competitors, aside from Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series. PES is still alive and well, but the latest game in the franchise, simply titled eFootball, hasn’t really gained a good reputation among fans. Fortunately, Rematch is one other non-EA soccer game that has become pretty popular lately.

Rematch is the latest and, perhaps, most unexpected project from French developer Sloclap, the creators of the martial arts-inspired action games Absolver and Sifu. Unlike the company’s previous works, Rematch is a 5v5 arcadey sports game that has a colorful, stylized art style and is played from a third-person perspective. The game was released just a few weeks ago, but it’s already proven to be quite popular among soccer fans. It sold over one million copies in only a few days, and it reached the 3 million player count mark by June 25, 2025.

Sloclap Should Add FIFA-Branded Cosmetics to Rematch as Part of a Collaboration Event

Since Rematch has managed to attract a large audience, it would make a lot of sense for Sloclap to collaborate with FIFA for the game. Although it’s unlikely that the developer would ever rebrand Rematch as a FIFA title, it could add some FIFA-branded cosmetics to it. Such a move wouldn’t be completely unprecedented, since Sloclap has already started to introduce collaboration content to the game. In the last couple of weeks, for example, Rematch has received a Puma-branded cosmetic set, as well as a skin modeled after a real-world soccer player, Marc-André ter Stegen.

Some may scoff at the idea of having to pay for a Rematch cosmetic with a FIFA logo on it, but it would probably sell better than many people expect. One of the biggest reasons why EA’s FIFA series was so popular, after all, was because of the FIFA branding itself. FIFA is practically synonymous with soccer/football, especially in Europe, and adding some new cosmetics to Rematch as part of a FIFA collaboration event can make the game even more popular than it already is. There probably aren’t going to be any proper FIFA video games released anytime soon, but a Rematch collab would be the next best thing.

Rematch

7/10

Released

June 19, 2025

Developer(s)

Sloclap

Publisher(s)

Sloclap, Kepler Interactive

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op