EA announces FIFA deal

EA Sports, the team behind the ever-popular FIFA franchise, has announced a contract extension that'll see the studio continue to work with the FIFA license until 2022.

The agreement - which now runs until December 31, 2022 - gives EA exclusive rights to FIFA-branded games, both sporting and managerial, as well as the official World Cup games. EA will also retain its position as "Presenting Partner of the FIFA Interactive World Cup."

"EA SPORTS released the first FIFA-branded football game in 1993, and 20 years later our partnership with FIFA continues to be very strong," said EA Sports VP Andrew Wilson.

"Our franchise has become the benchmark for quality and innovation in the sports videogame genre, and we look forward to many more years of connecting with consumers around the world with our games carrying the prestigious FIFA name."

Yesterday EA announced a quarterly report that revealed that FIFA 13 has achieved staggering sales of 14.5 million units sold so far (making it the second best selling sports game ever behind Wii Sports), making it crystal clear just why the publisher is so keen to hold on to the exclusive license.

You can read our preview of FIFA 14, which like previous games in the series' history is due to land in late September, right here.