PlayStation was once very close to securing the FIFA license to create an exclusive football game for Sony’s console. This was revealed by Juan Montes, who served as the president of PlayStation’s Software Development division from 1994 to 2000.
“We were creating a football game at the time,” Montes said. “The technology was there, it was pretty good, and we were very close to getting the FIFA license. Very, very close.. But in the end, we decided not to pursue it [in order to have] a good relationship with a third-party.”
The third party in question, of course, was Electronic Arts. “We were very close to being in that space,” continued Montes, who, with his team at the time, released two football games — This is Football and This is Football 2.
A Missed Opportunity for PlayStation
Without the FIFA license, the two titles received approval from FIFPro, which allowed them to include some real players and stadiums from various parts of Europe.
As many will remember, FIFA changed its name in 2022, becoming EA Sports FC, but the official license certainly helped the series achieve huge success, selling tens of millions of copies over the years.
According to Juan Montes, things could have gone differently if Sony had won the FIFA license back in the days of This is Football. That would have tied the FIFA brand to the PlayStation platform — a move that might have completely changed the history of football video games.
