「经济学人」It’s in the game

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It's in the game How FIFA was outplayed by Electronic Arts The video-game publisher called the football chiefs’ bluff—and won A new football season will begin on September 27th: not the Premier League or La Liga, but the annual update of the world’s favourite football video-game. “FIFA”, as the franchise was known from its pixelated debut in 1993, sells nearly 30m copies a year. In-game spending pushes its annual revenue above $3bn, estimates MoffettNathanson, a firm of analysts, which calculates that the title contributes nearly two-thirds of the profit of its publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). Gaming has few bigger names than “FIFA”. Yet a year ago EA changed the name of its mega-hit to “EA Sports FC”, after its licensing deal with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, football’s governing body, fell apart. FIFA had reportedly demanded more than the $150m or so that it had been charging EA each year for the privilege of using its name. EA decided ………………………………