Menu
work
About
collections
news
Careers
Contact
DesignStudio is now Further.

EA Sports

Shifting from game publisher to entertainment platform

For three decades, EA SPORTS was known as a publisher of blockbuster sports titles like FIFA, Madden, and NHL. But as player behaviour changed and expectations evolved, so too did EA’s ambition. No longer focused solely on annual game releases, EA SPORTS is repositioning itself as a connected platform, one that unifies its franchises and extends into a broader, more social, always-on ecosystem. That shift is embodied in the new EA SPORTS app, designed not just to support gameplay but to redefine how fans engage across sports, teams, and communities.

The transformation signals a broader intent to lead the future of interactive sports entertainment, and place itself at the centre of entertainment, sport, and culture. With a current player network of 265 million spanning casual, heavy, and lapsed users, the company sees an opportunity to grow that audience to more than one billion. The next wave of growth will come from Gen Z sports fans who are digitally native, socially connected, and globally distributed.

region:
Global
Capabilities:
Brand
Digital
Campaign

Strategy

To achieve these goals, the company has developed a new product: the EA SPORTS app. Built as the company’s first horizontal product, the app connects individual game verticals into a single fan-facing experience. It serves as a hub for real-time scores, statistics, music, polls, and social features, layered with both organic and sponsored content. It also opens new monetisation opportunities, offering brands and advertisers a way to integrate into the fan journey through contextual placements, interactive formats, and dynamic media environments.

Over the last year, Further has been working closely with EA SPORTS to create this defining moment

The development of the app involved close collaboration between brand, product, and executive teams to establish a unified strategic vision. That began with the creation of a new brand platform and the redefinition of EA SPORTS’ role in its own ecosystem. Prototypes were created to bring the experience to life for stakeholders, helping align leadership around the product’s potential.

Brand System

The visual identity was rebuilt to reflect this ambition, retaining key equities such as the red, white, and blue color palette and the iconic tagline: It’s in the game. We needed to take these building blocks and create a flexible system capable of presenting the many worlds of sports content.

It’s in the game became the conceptual springboard. From it, the tunnel system was conceived as the primary asset. Visually distinctive, flexible, immersive, it permitted EA SPORTS to showcase multiple sports, teams and game IP titles, cohesively. Similarly for the typeface. It evolved from EA SPORTS’ existing typeface, and filtered through the tunnel asset to create infinite configurations, while always connecting back to the EA SPORTS platform. A digital-first toolkit was built to define UI, motion, and sonic elements. The art direction was designed to be broadcast and content-ready, allowing the brand to show up dynamically in both editorial and interactive contexts.

Case study image 1

Product

The app’s interface became a testing ground for this new identity. From the layout of content feeds to interaction behaviors, the design focused on clarity, expressiveness, and ease of use. Because the EA SPORTS app prioritizes the parent brand over individual franchises, the resulting identity became the foundation for how EA SPORTS now shows up across its ecosystem.

The brand system had to also consider their monetization strategy, supporting a blend of sponsored and editorial content, without compromising experience. Flexible frameworks were introduced to help partners integrate in meaningful ways. To strengthen appeal among Gen Z audiences, expressive features like badge systems, hero illustrations, and audio cues for key events were introduced to enhance the sense of progression and reward.

Case study image 2
Case study image 1

Campaign

Following a successful beta launch in Europe, the app is now rolling out globally. Ongoing work includes user acquisition campaigns, creative direction, branded content, and merchandise. As the platform matures, EA SPORTS is positioning itself to lead not just in gaming, but in how sports are experienced, consumed, and shared.

Case study image 1 Case study image 2

SPECIAL THANKS

FURTHER

Eric Ng

Joe Hewitt

Rachel Honigman

Lorenzo Di Cola

Luke Winn

Joni Kirton

John Keough

Diane Dear

Joey Nanni

James LeBeau-Morley

Kirsty Deacon

Vitor Cervi

Andy Dawson

Chris Anderson

Thiago Pinho

Peggy Nyamekye

Tom Shotton

EA

Joe Pecchia

David Jackson

James Bass

Tayo Adeleye

Terence Hobson

Andrew Conti

Lexi Mohr

Sabha Batra

COLLABORATORS

NiceShit

Father

Further 3D Spinning Wordmark

Bring us your challenge

Contact us