from a football board to a top video game

One fine winter day, forty people became millionaires. The beginning of a fairy tale? Dream? The ravings of a madman? No, that's a fact. On December 12, 1980, forty Apple employees were simultaneously enriched by receiving shares of the company. Among them was the marketing director, who successfully sold the Apple II in the b2b segment. His name was Trip Hawkins.

No, this post is not about Apple. It's about unexpected turns in the history of the gaming business, thanks to which we have a cool football metaverse today.

First there was Apple

Trip Hawkins has loved games since childhood. At that time, the video game industry did not yet exist, and the teenager spent his free time on Strat-O-Matic Football, a board card game that simulated American football matches.

The passion for gaming was so strong that Hawkins made it his profession. He studied economics at Harvard and became a strategist in applied game theory. Then he received an MBA from Stanford. And in 1978, Trip went to work at Apple, where he made an impressive career in just two years.

But the position of top manager of the famous company and even its stake in the property did not become the ultimate dream of Hawkins. He did not forget about his childhood passion for games. Moreover, very close by, an entire industry was rapidly developing – the world of video games, in which more and more technologies were becoming available. And Trip decided to start his own gaming business.

In May 1982, Hawkins registered the Amazin Software company and invested his own funds in it – $120 thousand, which were intended for initial promotion and hiring of personnel. Trip planned to develop software for home computers and, first of all, create games.

Coincidentally or not, he rented an office for the new company in the same building where Don Valentine’s famous Sequoia Capital was located. Hawkins's acquaintance with this odious person quickly bore fruit in the form of an investment of 1 million, and later John Doerr, Ben Rosen, Jerry Moss and Steve Wozniak himself became co-investors in the project. This money allowed Hawkins to assemble a strong team of developers who had projects at Xerox, Apple and Atari. But the matter was not limited to our own development.

But first, one important event happened: six months after registration, the company was renamed. The new name reflected the essence of the business much more accurately – Electronic Arts.

From board games to video games

The video game industry was booming. New projects appeared constantly, but they all lacked the main thing – resources to enter the market. And Electronic Arts began to select the most promising and attractive among numerous projects, offering them its financial and marketing competencies. In essence, the company turned into a label, the same as the music labels already familiar at that time. Only – gaming.

The first to be published in the spring of 1983 under the EA label were Hard Hat Mack, Pinball Construction Set and several other games. Original envelopes were developed for them, very reminiscent of record sleeves, where, in addition to the visuals, the name of the game and the name of the developer were prominently displayed. The logo of EA itself was also prominently featured. Coupled with aggressive promotion that used a variety of venues, the striking, original covers created what Hawkins was looking for – a buzz among gamers.

EA and sports

Sports appeared quite quickly in EA's business. Obviously, Trip's childhood passion for football boards did not let him go. As a teenager, he tried to copy his beloved Strat-O-Matic Football, although he completely lost sight of such an annoying little thing as copyrights. Then the teenager escaped with fright. Having turned into an adult businessman, he acted wiser – he copied not the content, but the idea.

In one of the popular television shows of the early 80s, famous basketball players competed with each other in the skills and techniques of the game. Hawkins did a simple thing – he transferred the action of this show into gameplay. All he had to do was negotiate with famous athletes through agents. The first issue featured NBA superstars Larry Bird and Julius Erving. They played streetball with each other, their “match” was filmed so that the movements of the celebrities were then exactly copied by the designers. And as a result, gamers got the opportunity not only to play one-on-one basketball, but also to be in the role of their idols who performed on the court. Agree, for a fan this is much more than just coming to the stadium wearing the jersey of a famous player.

The game, artlessly called One-On-One, became so popular that it was recognized as the Electronic Game of the Year. Its circulation exceeded 250 thousand copies, and it was available on many platforms – from PC to Commodore.

Another major milestone in the history of EA Sports is the release of a full-fledged game simulator. True, the task was not easy. Three years passed from idea to implementation, but in 1988 the NFL simulator was finally released, the face of which was the famous coach John Madden.

How Americans got acquainted with real football

The 90s have arrived. EA has already become one of the largest gaming labels, and, as is always the case with giant companies, has begun expansion beyond North America. With what? Of course, with its most popular games, including simulators – hockey, basketball, football…

However, you and I understand perfectly well that in all other countries of the world, except the USA, football is the most popular sport, but it (to put it mildly) is not in every way similar to American football. Of course, it is possible to sell an American football simulator in Europe. But they will play it exclusively “for fun”, without the excitement and immersion that a simulator of proper (that’s right, without quotes) football would cause. And EA headquarters were directly pointed out this from the company’s British office.

To convey to Americans the idea that Madden NFL is considered a simulator not of football, but of “I don’t understand what,” EA Sports employees in Britain needed the help of colleagues. It’s good that in Canada they knew what European (and world) football was and understood the full significance of this game. It was decided that the game would be made after all, but they initially treated it as a project that would clearly fail commercially.

What Marketing Can Do

Easy to say, but difficult to do. The head office of EA Sports was not going to waste time and energy on this pointless and obviously unprofitable soccer game. And the prim British were instructed to cope with their idea on their own.

Here the British branch of EA Sports found itself in a stalemate. Deadlines are running out, there is almost no budget, and without a football simulator you can’t even think about promoting in Europe. The “magic of the label” came to the rescue. In Europe, as in America, the company looked for promising projects for which it offered the services of a publisher. A similar project was found in Cheshire County. The author tried to offer EA several of his developments, including a beach volleyball simulator. And when Matt Webster came to meet the developers, the puzzle came together.

Instead of putting finished projects under the wing of EA Sports, Matt suggested that their authors, John Lowe and Jules Bert, start a new one. Matt explained that the company did not need a volleyball simulator, especially a beach volleyball one, but a football simulator would be in place. Probably, if Bert and Lowe were not English, they would have refused. A simulator of a game that takes place in a huge stadium with 22 moving objects-players, and even in a short time and with unclear prospects… But in England they love football with all their hearts, they cannot imagine life without it. And the guys didn’t just quickly develop a prototype of the game – they offered three visualization options: regular, classic “from above”, I wasn’t impressed; the second, “from the side,” also did not seem successful. But the third one turned out to be a real bomb! It was isometric, which allowed the gamer not only to control the actions of the players, but also to be close to them, on the field.

The first result, as they say, “went in.” It became clear that work on the prototype needed to be intensified, and Canada became the “birthplace” of the game, where the local EA Sports team had the necessary resources. She got Matt Webster as a producer, and work began to boil. The game had to be put into circulation by the end of 1993. And this time period was not chosen by chance.

Brand power

All successful EA sports projects were in one way or another connected with the brands of sports federations. The company decided to take the same path in promoting the football simulator. We managed to reach an agreement quickly with the marketing department of the football association, and here's why.

In Switzerland, football officials were very concerned about the fate of the next World Cup, which was to be held in 1994 in the USA. The right to host it was given to the Americans in order to revive interest in soccer. The country was creating its own soccer league, MLS, and it was in dire need of promotion in the American sports market. The World Championship, which was already ahead of even the Olympic Games in popularity, was an excellent way to raise interest in the game.

But the sports forum itself was also under threat. The American public could have ignored the World Cup because they simply did not understand the game. And to send Americans to the ticket counters, strong arguments were needed. FIFA considered the appearance of a new video game to be one of them. Therefore, we easily signed a contract with EA for a period of five years. In the end, they would still have to invest in the promotion of the World Cup, and in the event of a commercial failure of the game, the associations would lose almost nothing.

However, to the surprise of EA Sports, it turned out that FIFA does not have the rights to the names of teams and players. This structure is by no means an American league, which holds in its hands all the little things, right down to the color of the sports shoes used. And in football there are separate continental federations and leagues of different countries. Therefore, in the first version of the game, it was not Romario or Valderama who “played” in the jerseys of their national teams, but completely unknown characters. For example, Matt Webster as England striker.

FIFA International Soccer went on sale around Christmas 1993. To say that the game instantly became a hit is to sin against the truth… It had the effect of an atomic bomb explosion! There were queues for the game; literally everyone, young and old, played it. Five hundred thousand copies in the first six months – such success has never happened before!

Without the high commercial results of the first version of the game, it would hardly have received powerful development. And for many years, EA released annual updates, “tying” them to various football events: World Cups, continental championships or the Champions League. The company quickly sorted out the rights, and characters with real prototypes appeared in the game, which only added to its fans. Various modes have appeared that allow you to play in a tournament, build a career as a player or coach. At the same time, EA Sports did not complicate the plot too much, leaving those who want not only to play, but also to manage, the opportunity to install Football Manager.

In other words, EA approached the development of the game and equipping it with new goodies very carefully. Even the technical capabilities in it are being realized gradually, and this is clearly noticeable to those who follow the evolution of graphics. It happens in FIFA gradually, without leaps, in accordance with the fundamental principle of “do no harm.”

Next – without FIFA

Time passed, and the gaming project, which was treated in the football association as collateral marketing, became highly profitable. The very attitude towards video games, which have become the most important promotion tool for many organizations, has also changed. And earnings.

The same thing happened with FIFA. The organization, which, in fact, plays a unifying role and “owns” only the World Championships and the Confederations Cup, wanted to receive more money from the game of the same name. And EA Sports did the math and calculated and decided that the brand of an international football association is not worth that much.

The termination of cooperation between EA Sports and FIFA came as a shock not only to fans of the game, but also to sports officials in many countries. Of course! Then the degree of popularity of football in a particular country began to be measured by how many players of its national team were represented in the game.

But the shock quickly passed. FIFA itself, realizing the mistake, decided to find a new developer and revive its brand among the gaming community, but this move has not yet brought whists to world football officials.

But EA acted wiser. Over the years of development of the game, the company has thoroughly studied the structure of football management and is concerned with concluding contracts with continental football structures such as UEFA and COMNEBOL, national leagues, rights to players, stadiums and other surroundings.

The results of this work are before us today. The release of EA Sports FC 24, timed to coincide with the European Championship, clearly demonstrated that nothing was missing from the game except the FIFA name, but, as always, there are updates. Small, but very interesting.

Now the completely fresh EA Sports FC 25 is coming, and gamers are again in anticipation.