Football games are unusually concentrated among a small number of titles compared with other sports genres. The reason sits in rights acquisition rather than in development difficulty.
The rights are fragmented by design
A single match involves competition branding, club identities, kit designs, stadium likenesses and individual player images. Even the ball and the boots carry their own commercial agreements.
Each of those is controlled by a different party, and each can be licensed separately to different buyers. There is no single counterparty able to grant football as a whole.
Assembling a complete authentic experience means negotiating many agreements rather than one. Each agreement has its own term, territory and renewal risk, so the portfolio needs constant maintenance.
Player likeness is handled collectively in some places
Player unions and representative bodies often bundle image rights so that a developer can license a squad rather than an individual. Bundling reduces transaction costs enormously for both sides.
Where no such bundle exists, individual negotiation is required and gaps appear in coverage. A single holdout inside a squad leaves a visible placeholder in the finished game.
This is why some games feature fully accurate squads in one competition and generic substitutes in another.
Exclusivity raises the barrier for newcomers
Some licences are sold exclusively, which removes them from the market for the duration of the agreement. Exclusivity is worth paying for precisely because it denies a rival something, rather than because it adds much on its own.
A new entrant then faces a choice between building an unlicensed game or competing without the identities players expect.
Unlicensed football games exist and some have strong simulation quality, but they start with a disadvantage that has nothing to do with gameplay.
Costs scale with ambition rather than with sales
Licence fees are largely fixed and must be paid regardless of how the finished game performs commercially. The cost is incurred before a single copy sells.
That structure favours publishers with existing volume, since the same fees spread across a larger player base.
Smaller studios respond by narrowing scope, focusing on management simulation or single competitions where rights are cheaper.
The management genre found a way around it
Management titles depend on names, attributes and histories rather than on visual likeness, so their rights requirements are lighter. Nobody needs a photorealistic face for a player who appears as a row in a table.
Player databases can be built largely from public performance information supplemented by narrower agreements. Volunteer scouting networks have historically filled much of the remainder.
That lower barrier is a large part of why management simulation remains the one corner of football gaming where independent development is still viable.