Abstract: Transposing performance theory to the realm of professional sports, this chapter examines the trajectory of promotional materials for the FIFA video game series (now titled EA Sports FC) since 2008. It argues that, in response to the technologies developed in these video games and the streaming industries they are connected to, Electronic Arts (EA) has shifted its marketing practices of the series from feeling like the athlete, to paradoxically being more than the athlete. Immersive sports video game technologies and their industries have increasingly remapped the athlete's body onto users, asking us to reconsider the incorporation of star athletes into these marketing campaigns as more than playful product endorsements, but as sites to analyze the relationship between image rights, digital avatars, and agency.

Keywords: FIFA video game series (EA Sports FC), performance theory, body theory, sports star, digital avatars

Before the signature tagline of the Electronic Arts (EA) Sports franchise appears at its end, the closing sequence of FIFA 10's (Electronic Arts, 2009) release trailer intercuts images of everyday fans with some of soccer's biggest stars of the 2009–2010 season, from Wayne Rooney and Giorgio Chiellini to Karim Benzema and Xavi. As a series of passport-like headshots of players and fans alike are rapidly shown in succession (fig. 14.1), a voiceover triumphantly declares: “Ten million Rooneys, ten billion Benzemas, ten zillion Xavis.” Though the trailer showcases some of the most advanced sports gaming technologies available at the time and its collective star power and colossal set pieces remain visually striking over a decade since it first premiered, its closing moments arrive in a technologically simple presentation, borrowing optical illusions from two of the most familiar pre-cinematic devices. The effect of this closing passport-like sequence functions like a zoetrope, with the flickered movement from these seemingly still headshots combining to create a sense of quasi-seamlessness through their montage, while also producing the effect of a thaumatrope, with the rapid intercutting of faces producing a flurry of blended noses, ears, eyes, and mouths that are momentarily superimposed. With one face being almost indistinguishable from the next as these images morph and meld to distort the rush of profiles, the trailer ends with the voice-over asking a most provocative question: “How big can football get?”