eFootball (All Platforms)

[Marreco]

And that is where it still becomes an interesting question legally. Maybe it can be fine depending on how you do it. But it will still depend on multiple factors and still won't guarantee you will not hear from lawyers and get into legal discussions.
And the rule also is the bigger the game/company that would allow it in their game, the more likely for the big football licensors wanting to get a piece of the cake. It is basically a walk on eggshells.

In the end, legal reasoning does not matter at all. Open AI, Anthropic give a shit on copyright. The football leagues sell individual games to various TV providers under the guise of "competition" although exactly the opposite would be competition. When everyone buys all games and actually fight for customers through the best deals. It's always just a matter of power and interest. Tennis Elbow 4 does exactly what you put here as completely banned. There you can load mods directly in the game. This is not to prove that it is not justifiable. If there is someone powerful with interest to sue Tennis elbow 4 it would be possible. What I want to say is that in my opinion it does not matter what you or someone else think is legally correct or interesting.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

Somehow people might misunderstand what I am saying. I never said it is banned.

I am saying it is understandable.why no big football gaming company will take the risk since the likelihood of legal issues is big. Just remember when EA had to stop selling the World Cup game because of legal issues with Kahn (and how he then wasn't in PES games for a while) or their trouble with Ibrahimovic.

So yes the likeliness of an edit mode coming back or downloadable mods in a football game for now would be very low.

And to use your sentence: it doesn't matter if you think games should be able to do that or if other games do it. The reality is it won't happen in football games in the near future, Konami stated that directly and EA has gotten rid of Creation Centre and never brought it back.

Saying legal reasoning doesn't matter is just weird when that is exactly the reason why none of the companies who are making football games at the moment are doing it.

And it is great for Tennis Elbow if no Tennis organization has sued the makers. It's not the same in football where constantly clubs lawyers are taking actions. Just look up Man United vs Football Manager.

So it is not that no one can try, it is that no one will be willing to take the risk,.at least of the big companies.

But we will again soon in circles as the last time it was discussed. So I will leave it there if you want to discuss more write a DM but this is straying now from efootball away

 

[Marreco]

Somehow people might misunderstand what I am saying. I never said it is banned.

I am saying it is understandable.why no big football gaming company will take the risk since the likelihood of legal issues is big. Just remember when EA had to stop selling the World Cup game because of legal issues with Kahn (and how he then wasn't in PES games for a while) or their trouble with Ibrahimovic.

So yes the likeliness of an edit mode coming back or downloadable mods in a football game for now would be very low.

And to use your sentence: it doesn't matter if you think games should be able to do that or if other games do it. The reality is it won't happen in football games in the near future, Konami stated that directly and EA has gotten rid of Creation Centre and never brought it back.

Saying legal reasoning doesn't matter is just weird when that is exactly the reason why none of the companies who are making football games at the moment are doing it.

And it is great for Tennis Elbow if no Tennis organization has sued the makers. It's not the same in football where constantly clubs lawyers are taking actions. Just look up Man United vs Football Manager.

So it is not that no one can try, it is that no one will be willing to take the risk,.at least of the big companies.

But we will again soon in circles as the last time it was discussed. So I will leave it there if you want to discuss more write a DM but this is straying now from efootball away

You may be right on some points. But and attention only my opinion: the reason why there is no edit mode or no fake leagues like before (PES 6 for example) or offline content, is not one that has anything to do with licensing. The only reason is economic calculation. I can make a ridiculous amount of money with very little effort. Any form of offline/edit content has the potential to pull players out of the casino mode and would cause development costs.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

And I still think from my experience that that argument isn't valid. It wouldn't drive away. Quite the opposite. Your engagement numbers would go up, your Daily Active Users would go up which makes it more likely for them to stay and try also to spend on the cards,.usually also conversion goes up

There is enough heavy monetizing Free2Play games who are centered around User Geerated Content. User Generated Content even often is called the future for Service Games and has proven to enhance the monetization in many games. So actually if it is about money then investing in UGC would be the smarter move. (Especially for companies who right now license leagues, imagine how much money they would save).

Sometimes the answer really is as simple as: too risky from a legal standpoint and not worth the risk. Especially since we are not talking one football game but all with financial backing that have come out: UFL, Efootbal, FC, Goals none of them is going in a UGC direction. And now if you think about it, wouldn't it be a chance to attract users? To do something different and have user created content? Then why aren't they doing it? Especially the newer ones that have to compete with EA and Konami. And then it likely goes back to: their lawyers told them not to risk it.

 

[Marreco]

And I still think from my experience that that argument isn't valid. It wouldn't drive away. Quite the opposite. Your engagement numbers would go up, your Daily Active Users would go up which makes it more likely for them to stay and try also to spend on the cards,.usually also conversion goes up

There is enough heavy monetizing Free2Play games who are centered around User Geerated Content. User Generated Content even often is called the future for Service Games and has proven to enhance the monetization in many games. So actually if it is about money then investing in UGC would be the smarter move. (Especially for companies who right now license leagues, imagine how much money they would save).

Sometimes the answer really is as simple as: too risky from a legal standpoint and not worth the risk. Especially since we are not talking one football game but all with financial backing that have come out: UFL, Efootbal, FC, Goals none of them is going in a UGC direction. And now if you think about it, wouldn't it be a chance to attract users? To do something different and have user created content? Then why aren't they doing it? Especially the newer ones that have to compete with EA and Konami. And then it likely goes back to: their lawyers told them not to risk it.

Premise 1 : Konami aims for maximum player counts and higher profits.
Premise 2 : An edit mode and offline content would predictably attract more players and increase profits.
Premise 3 : The fear of legal consequences caused by modding outweighs the pursuit of potential profit.
Conclusion: Konami deliberately sacrifices profitable features (edit mode/offline content) to minimize legal risks.

Got your Point and is think it's not the case. Deliberately missing out on additional revenue due to fear of lawsuits is, in my view, highly improbable.
Without offline modes, players are driven into the Casino, which generates continuous revenue through in-game purchases. Offline modes only yield one-time revenue.
Edit mode allows players to replicate official teams for free.
Eliminating complex offline modes drastically cuts development, maintenance, and server costs, maximizing the overall profit margin.
Konami pays heavily for exclusive partner clubs (e.g., FC Bayern). Allowing easy modding would devalue these expensive contracts, which currently serve as the main incentive to buy online packs.
The legal risk for Konami is minimal, as the responsibility lies with the modders. Omitting the edit mode and offline content is a purely strategic and financial decision designed to push players toward microtransactions and cut development costs.

I think with this, the battle lines are drawn, and who is right is anyone's guess.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

If offline modes damage revenue and profit then why has EAFC still all Career Modes and invests in them? Shouldn't they then also cut them, get rid of those development teams and focus purely on Ultimate Team?

And no the legal risk wouldn't just be minimal, that is sadly not the truth anymore in football licensing.

And the main incentive to buy players is not the Partner Clubs but the players which most of them are covered by Fifpro.

Like I said the most likely scenario is Konami did get letters from licensors and now won't do edit mode anymore. Which is basically also what they stated.

 

[Marreco]

If offline modes damage revenue and profit then why has EAFC still all Career Modes and invests in them? Shouldn't they then also cut them, get rid of those development teams and focus purely on Ultimate Team?

And no the legal risk wouldn't just be minimal, that is sadly not the truth anymore in football licensing.

Essentially, EA FC does nothing but focus entirely on Ultimate Team. The career mode has remained virtually identical for over 10 years, costing them next to nothing to maintain. Furthermore, why does EA FC include fake teams in the game that can be—and already have been—easily modded? In short, offline content is bad for monetization because it generates zero recurring revenue after the initial purchase. EA only keeps a bare-minimum Career Mode and fake teams as an alibi to justify the full $70 price tag. For EA, offline gaming is a dead end; their sole economic goal is to starve the offline mode so players are forced into the highly profitable Ultimate Team ecosystem.Thats my guess.

 

[Jay-Jay 10]

Or just a thought, because actually the group of players who plays both modes exists and Career Mode is important to those players and they use it for their single player experience, to cool down and then go back to the Online experience, which is why they update it with things like the Live Start Points.

To be honest I don't think we will get anywhere in this discussion. And we have strayed far away from efootball and we can spin for hours in circles and still worn convince the other side. So let's leave it at that. You believe the reason is to save costs and I think it is legal reasons. Agree to disagree.