Addressing the 2K Soccer Rumors: Is There Any Actual Smoke?

As is the cycle these days, the rumors about Take-Two Interactive making a foray into the soccer/football stratosphere emerge and just as quickly they usually disappear. So what’s different this time? Let’s take a look and see if there really could be a FIFA 2K or 2K Soccer at some point.

How We Got Here

Before we delve into the matter at hand, it’s important to understand how we got here. The rumors of 2K making a soccer game have been circulating for years, but the attention really picked up when back in 2022 EA Sports announced that it would not be renewing its partnership with the global football entity FIFA. This was a historic moment for the franchise that had at that point become synonymous with a video game — so much so that the organization FIFA played second fiddle to EA Sports title.

The subsequent rebranding to “EA FC” left many wondering how this would affect the game and its popularity. Fast forward a few years and the reality of the matter is that the prior existing deal between EA and FIFA, rumored to be ~$150 million per year, was not worth it, especially considering the rumors that FIFA wanted to double the fee (~$300 million). Simply put, there was not enough return on the FIFA brand name.

We the fans received one World Cup game every four years, one in which if we’re being truthful has seen its quality decrease drastically over the last 15 or so years. Plagued by issues with licensing and a lack of resources, the EA World Cup title no longer carries the weight it once did.

So with the FIFA partnership currently vacant and getting shopped around, the obvious question on everyone’s mind was “should Take-Two pick it up and make a soccer game?”

Take-Two’s Soccer Game History

Such is the success of Take-Two’s flagship sports studio 2K that despite not having made a console-based soccer game since Alexi Lalas International Soccer in 1998/99 for the PlayStation 1, fans of 2K clamored for Take-Two to dust off their boots and take the pitch. Take-Two does currently have a mobile game,Top Eleven, but the return to console gaming looks daunting.

As we’ve seen with Strikerz Inc’s UFL, making a soccer game from scratch is a lofty task, even with the size and resources 2K has at its disposal. 25 years is a long time between releases, and considering what we’ve seen in terms of how long it took EA to get College Football 25 up to speed, the task at hand is daunting and one that probably wouldn’t return a profit for a few years given then large startup costs.

What’s Changed?

As is the requirement for publicly traded companies like Take-Two, the annual earnings call with stakeholders resurrected the yearly discussion on this topic. This time it was Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick who took to the hot seat and he did not shy away from the question but once again repeated the challenges behind such an undertaking.

“We’re very mindful that it’s incredibly difficult to build a great sim experience for console…”

What exactly are the challenges behind entering this space? Well, for starters there’s this rather large albatross lurking:

And that right there folks is the biggest impediment for this sport. We’ve seen and still see the licensing wars going on between EA and eFootball’s maker Konami, and unfortunately the fans always receive the short end of the stick with unlicensed leagues and clubs. If you’re taking a ground-up approach, there’s the fundamental license that you need to secure in order to have the players: FIFPRO. After all, FIFPRO licenses over 70 different player organizations around the world.

Next up are the various domestic leagues where many, including England’s top flight (English Premier League), have exclusive deals with EA. If you want to make a football simulation in 2024, you need the most popular league in the world.

If you get past this and secure yourself some league association licenses, you have to work with the continental governing bodies such as UEFA, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF to name a few. These are confederations are vital for realistic game modes as they feature the continent’s highest competitions for club football (UEFA Champions League, Copa Libertadores, and so on) .

Furthermore, you need a partnership with a data-driven company like OPTA if you want to keep up-to-date with stats both in terms of helping with attributes and ratings but also with intricacies such as tactics and formations. Even additional sponsors such as EA’s partnership with Pepsi and big clubs like Liverpool and Real Madrid cost money and take time to develop, although Take-Two should be able to leverage existing corporate sponsors and at the very least renegotiate deals to potentially squeeze some more cash out those partners.

The Door Remains Open…Slightly

“We’re very mindful that it’s incredibly difficult to build a great sim experience for console, it takes a long time, and if you do it right your users are very loyal and very embedded.”

As stated by Zelnick, it appears that Take-Two sees the reward, but the the question is at what cost would it take to enter this arena and is the long-term reward worth the risk? With Konami’s eFootball now far from the football sim that made it popular, there certainly is an opportunity to grab the #2 spot, as evidenced by UFL’s aggressive release date of September 12. Take-Two and EA have already done battle on the basketball front with 2K killing off EA’s NBA Live series with their NBA 2K franchise. Will the door remain open? We can only wait and see.