A match made in heaven? EA Sports certainly seems to think so – and on paper you have to ask why on earth anyone would have doubted this collaboration in the first place. But it wasn’t always so.
Speaking at the D&AD Festival in London, EA Sports’ director of brand strategy and creative Ben Prout and director of brand activation Kevin Strunk explained the many arduous hoops they had to jump through to make this collab a reality.
Interestingly, the idea itself was formed without a commercial goal in mind and was rather borne out of the EA Sports staff’s own fandom of Ted Lasso and his corny football-themed escapades.
“There wasn’t a specific brainstorm or a specific moment that gave rise to it. It didn’t come from a brief, it happened really organically, quite naturally. More than anything, it was a response to something that we were seeing in popular culture,” Strunk explains.
“Ted Lasso was one of the most successful shows in the world, and so it started really with us being fans of the show, as well as many other people within our organisation. That’s such a key part of this story – this natural connection to something that you enjoy.”
The goal itself was simple – to get the fictional AFC Richmond, managed by rambunctious American Lasso, included as a playable team on FIFA 23, complete with a full playing squad including in-show stars Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster).
What Strunk, Prout et al managed to achieve is nothing short of genius – and would probably have been unthinkable just a decade ago. After all, AFC Richmond is entirely fictional, as are all its players.
To date it is the only fictional side to appear in any iteration of EA Sports’ FIFA/FC video game series.
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Let us not forget that FIFA/FC is the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Any brand tie-in would be massive, but the ideal partnership with a football-themed hit show took the collaboration to stratospheric levels.
A true testament to its success was that AFC Richmond ended up in the top 20 most-played teams in the game – and they’re not even a real side.
Prout adds: “Does it feel like a joke? Yes, it feels like a joke – it’s Ted Lasso, it’s a comedy. But as FIFA or as FC now, authenticity is so important to us and to be able to treat the club like a real football club was always at the core of what we wanted to do.”
As he explains, it was this wholehearted commitment to the authenticity of the experience that led to the partnership becoming such a resounding success.
Every minute detail was taken seriously, with AFC Richmond made available as a team on career mode, while the iconic Ted Lasso himself was made into a playable character.
Sadly, AFC Richmond did not appear in EA Sports FC 24, the series’ latest game, but its inclusion in FIFA 23 will certainly pave the way and open the door to pop culture tie-ins for popular video game franchises for years to come.
While EA Sports might be focused on a return to a more realistic portrayal of football for now, Strunk and Prout’s ambitious project was unquestionably one of gaming’s zaniest moments.
