But aren't EA terrible?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ
As a company they're terrible, but they do make a good football (both soccer and american football), basketball, and ice hockey games.
Even if Virtua Striker, along with all the Virtua games, were made for arcades, their console/PC ports were still good in their own rights. So just because EA has the lead of football games doesn't mean Virtua Striker wouldn't stand a chance.
Take Virtua Fighter for example. It's major competitors are Tekken, Dead or Alive and Street Fighter. But Sega still made ports of these arcade games to console and eventually PC.
Other than that, Virtua Strike has more brand-recognition than "EA Sports FC", I had to Google the name because it was that forgettable to me. Even if EA has the higher budget, both Sega fans and Football fans would appreciate choice. Hell, having the "Sonic FC" be a reoccuring thing for each Virtua Striker game would really set it apart from EA Sport FC.
Other than that, given Sega produces Football Manager, I wouldn't be against Virtua Striker reusing assets from Football Manager. Even if someone with a keen-eye noticed a new Virtua Striker game recycled from Football Manager, as long as Virtua Striker carries the gameplay it has, that's what matters.
You're googling it uncompletely.
EA's football franchise is
FIFA series. FIFA has more brand recognition than Virtua Striker.
They only changed the name recently due to how greedy FIFA had become so they left them but all fans know that EA Sports FC is the continuation of FIFA series (just like Football Manager fans know that it's a continuation of Championship Manager series).
FIFA series is the best selling football game even during Mega Drive and Saturn era.
Virtua Striker might have success in the arcade (in Japan Game Machine even listed Virtua Striker as being both the second most-successful arcade game and the most-successful dedicated arcade game of July 1995) but it has no chance in consoles.
SEGA only ported Virtua Striker 2 to Dreamcast so that the system could have a football game since EA refuses to make NBA, FIFA, NHL, and NFL games for Dreamcast due to SEGA rejected their demand for exclusive rights to publish sports games in Dreamcast. Sony took the chance and let EA ruled PS2 without worthy rivals to the point that many sport fans chose PS2 over Dreamcast. Imagine if you grew up with NBA, Madden NFL, NHL, and FIFA series and actively following them every year in SEGA system just to know that next SEGA system won't have them anymore, I really can't blame them.
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