FIFA and Konami sign partnership deal
by Aran Suddi · tsaFIFA and Konami have announced a new partnership deal, which will see the two work together on esports, with Konami’s eFootball being central to that. As part of the deal, eFootball will host two FIFA World Cup events, one for the console version and one for the mobile version of the game, with qualifiers kicking off today for the FIFAe World Cup 2024.
There are 18 participating countries in this FIFAe World Cup including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Turkey. The countries have been picked using player demographics to determine who should participate. The qualifiers are made up of three rounds and use the Dream Team game mode. Round 1 is against the eFootball AI while round 2 will be a challenge event, and round 3 will have players face off to determine final rankings. Those who qualify after the rankings will take part in national events, with those successful going on to represent their nation at the FIFAe World Cup. Konami has clarified you have to have the nationality of the country you are representing. The full tournament details are found at FIFAe World Cup 2024™.
“We have continued to take on the challenge of developing football and e-sports. We are delighted to be able to contribute to the promotion of football in a new dimension through this collaboration with FIFAe. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone at FIFA for giving me this opportunity. We can’t wait for the start of the FIFA World Cup. We are looking forward to conveying the enthusiasm, excitement and joy of eFootball players around the world to as many fans as possible through the FIFAe World Cup”, said Konami’s Senior Managing Executive Officer Koji Kobayashi.
“We are very pleased to announce our collaboration with Konami. The new FIFA e World Cup fits perfectly with our mission to promote football around the world and give players a chance to showcase their skills. We strongly believe that the FIFA World Cup, which is open to all football fans, will be a success,” Chief Business Officer of FIFA, Romy Gai said.
It definitely feels like we’re in a topsy turvy world, considering at one point Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer was the main rival of the FIFA games, before EA and FIFA split a couple of years ago, bringing an end to the EA FIFA games. EA has moved on using the FC moniker for its football games the last two years
Source: Konami