Fortnite is still the hottest game on the planet right now. And although the World Cup just ended, soccer also remains an incredibly popular sport across the globe. Given how the two began to blend together during the most recent World Cup, it is worth wondering whether or not the FIFA video games will reflect that fusion. As real life soccer players begin to use Fortnite emotes on the field, the FIFA team has been reflecting on how they could implement these moves along with the legal headaches inherent to that process.
In a recent interview on OkayCool, FIFA 19 Creative Director Matt Prior discussed the possibilities of adding Fortnite emotes to FIFA, describing how the team strives for realism over everything else. And if the players are using these emotes in real life, then something that got popularized in a video game could quickly loop back into a video game when used by real players. But Prior suspects that there could be some licensing issues in the way.
“We have seen celebrations like the Fortnite one going in,” he said. “There might be licensing issues around them, but we are always looking at the real world of football and trying to replicate it as much as possible. Specifically to those ones, I’m not sure if there are licensing issues around that.”
Given Prior’s words, he didn’t seem like he concretely knew either way if there would be licensing issues either way. Licensing issues around emotes could get tricky since the real life dances they are based on aren’t monetized. And those people who created the dances aren’t making money off their moves, which is something Chance the Rapper brought up earlier this month. But given the gray area around the subject of ownership, the prospect of putting the Fortnite emotes in FIFA could prove to be a hassle.
While some of these dances existed prior to Fortnite‘s world domination, the most prominent examples were from France’s Antoine Griezmann. He used the “Take the L” emote from the game after his goals against Argentina and Croatia. It looks vaguely similar to Pennywise’s dance from the film IT, but Griezmann has been known for emulating Fortnite emotes.
