UEFA Euro 2012 lacks the official teams and players for almost half of its included squads, it has emerged.
The FIFA 12 expansion adds 53 international teams for the European tournament, 24 of which consist of fake player names and invented strips.
Among the countries with artificial teams are host nation Ukraine, Wales, Slovakia, Estonia, Belarus and FYR Macedonia.
An EA spokesperson told Eurogamer that the lack of official teams was due to licensing issues.
“The national teams in Euro 2012 are a combination of teams officially licensed or covered by our FIFPro license, and generic teams,” the company spokesperson said. “While we would like to have every national team officially licensed, of the 53 national teams in the game, 29 are licensed. The remaining ones are generic.
“The inclusion of national teams is negotiated between EA and each national football association, which we need to license individually. Licensing teams and leagues is a business decision based on market size and limited resources, and within these parameters, we were not able to negotiate an agreement with every football association to have their national team included within the game.”
UEFA Euro 2012 launched yesterday (April 24) on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC for £15.99,1,800 MS Points (£15.30 / $22.50) and 2,500 FIFA Points respectively.