EA NFL Thoughts

[goatdan]

Well, that's two things that surprised me tonight. The first was when I bought two games at Circuit City for the GameCube as presents, and the guy told me they were 2 for $30 unless the games rang up as cheaper, and then they'd go with the cheaper price. Somehow, I got two for $15.00

And now this...

Basically, I'm not going to say too much about it or how it will be challenged or anything like that. I don't really care. But I want to just give some food for thought:

Will Madden remain Madden next year? Rumors have been that EA was looking at or will have to look at rebranding the games soon, as Madden is getting up there in age and might not be the best face for the games next year. If there is only one football game in town, it might make sense to change the name now.

It seems that the agreement lets EA have more access to the NFL vaults (NFL films and so on). Will this change anything? NFL2K5 had those 25 NFL moments that you could play. Will the future expand on this?

Do you think Sega knew and just didn't bid enough? Since it has been pretty much established that there are only two "games in town," do you think that EA just snatched it from under their noses, or they were around when the deal was made? My random guess is that EA just outbid what Sega could've afforded for the license to make it exclusive. With no one else other than Sega bidding, I don't think that would've been as high as some people do.

What will ESPN do? If there was one group that had a right to sue, it might be ESPN as the exclusivity contract hurts their ability to sell the EPSN name and presentation style. Since Madden hasn't used it in the past, and I think it is safe to assume won't use it next year, ESPN won't get paid any money for their brand. I have no clue what Sega was paying them, but this definitely hurts the amount their license is worth to a company. At the same time, might ESPN work with EA on just the NFL title, or might they totally jump ship?

Just some things to ponder...

[JJNova]

Well of Course Sega knew. Electronic Arts has been trying to acquire these rights for a long time. They currently hold PGA and Nascar rights (although no one mentioned the PGA in the othr thread).

The only reason I am responding is to let you know that EA also already mention that the game will be simply title EA's NFL Football when Madden kicks the bucket. I don't know why that is, unless Madden own the copyrights to his own image. You would think the Madden name would stay on, since everyone knows it's not his "Mr. Obvious", Yellow pen, replay circling ass that has us buying the game.

[Rogmeister]

I wonder if EA will go after exclusives? Will they try to be the only MLB licensed company next?

[YoshiM]

According to an IGN article it seems like they may be interested in MLB (though it's rumor at the moment).

My thoughts? It's a sad day for the sports gamer. Even though there was a lot of shovelware football titles in recent times, at least there was choice. Want more of a simulation effect? Madden may fit the bill as you practically get to make decisions on EVERYTHING (maybe next year you can pick the color of the urinal mints?) or ESPN NFL 2K? if you like your sim not so, um, simmy. Want quick play action? NFL Blitz fit the bill (until the dreck that was Pro came out) and so did NFL Fever. Now if you want ANYTHING related to NFL, it's EA and EA only (if the article is correct that EA has total exclusitivity to the NFL, Players Inc., etc.).

This makes me wonder what the future of gaming in general is going to be like. Is it going to return to the times similar to when Nintendo ruled third parties with an iron fist? With EA being as big as they are, how much of a stretch would it be to say Sony pays/reduces license fees to EA for them to exclusively develop games for the PS2/PS3/PSP? Hey, EA pretty much did that with the Dreamcast, who says they wouldn't do that to maybe Xbox or even Gamecube/Revolution? With that in mind, the future ain't lookin bright and I'm not wearing shades.

My 2 zenny thus far...

[sabre2922]

I hate EA I have never truly hated a publisher/developer like I do EA all because of this:



December 13, 2004 - Just when you thought ESPN Videogames was catching up, in one move, they've never been farther behind. Electronic Arts announced today an exclusive licensing agreement with the National Football League and Players Inc. to develop, publish, and distribute interactive football games. These agreements give EA the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums, and players for use in its football video games for the next five years.


You read that right…exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums, and players.

Meaning no ESPN NFL 2K6, no more NFL GameDay, and bye-bye NFL Blitz. All football fans will be left with are Madden, NFL Street, and a new unannounced football management game that is in the works from, you guessed it, EA Sports.
they must be stopped I call for a complete boycott on all future EA products ....yeah right like that would ever work

[yoursisterspretty]

This is absolutely terrible and it’s amazing that it was even allowed to happen. Is the NFL really making more money off of this deal? To say the least I am pissed. I simply will not ever by another EA NFL game in protest. Not only will this allow EA to continue to charge $50 for yearly updates, but I'm afraid that it could kill creativity with the lack of competition. I honestly don't think EA will "quit trying", but it could happen. Most importantly, with sports games so important to any systems success, EA now has a huge stake in whether a system is a "success" or not. This is just a bad deal that honestly is not good for anybody besides EA. I really had fun back in the day with Play Action Football on the NES, and it was without a NFL license, so I hope not all is lost.

[classicb]

Well I like to get the casual gamers thoughts on things like this since so many of us here at DP have similar thoughts. So I told my friend Chris who only buys Madden games and has GT3 and Tekken 4 but every year he buys the new Madden and this year it was hard to get him to play my ESPN NFL 2K5. When I told him that EA bought the rights to the NFL the first thing he said was "oh man that's not good" He automatically saw how this could effet the Madden franchise negativley down the road. While I think that Madden will come with a strong title next year I can see them slacking off the following year. Everyone looses here.

Well at least Sega has Sonic Football

[petewhitley]

I don't really think the sky is falling here. Football gamers will likely suffer from a lack of competition. There's nothing to say that this is necessarily the wave of the future. It seems like a sound business decision in 2004, we'll wait and see what the market is like in 2009 (you can wait that long, can't you?). For a variety of reasons this may not work out in the end.

[goatdan]

Most importantly, with sports games so important to any systems success, EA now has a huge stake in whether a system is a "success" or not. This is just a bad deal that honestly is not good for anybody besides EA.

Hunh. I never even thought about that, but it is very true. What was the game that had everyone talking at the Dreamcast release? NFL 2K. Even with all the other great games...

That is a good question -- how sweet of a deal will console manufacturers have to make it so that EA's football game appears on their console.

Wouldn't it be amazing if MS signed an exclusive deal with them to ONLY bring football to the Xbox? That's the one company with enough money to do it I think, but dang would it make them into the strongest US system pretty easily.

Lord Football is pretty damn amazing really...

[swlovinist]

What you have is the Big guy pushing the little guy that made some noice this year. EA is flexing thier muscle because I feel that NFL 2K5 hurt them more than they are willing to admit. I agree with several of the posts, as less competition is bad for the consumer. A consumer SHOULD have all types of choices when it comes to a specific type or sport. Competition should be allowed, and this is EA just trying to buy a monopoly. While I think that the Madden franchise is a good, It pisses me off that they can strongarm the competition like this. I will do the best thing I can for protesting this action, I wont buy their next Madden Game!

[YoshiM]

Now that I'm a little more awake and got a chance to read different articles.

[devils advocate]
The way I interpret the articles, the NFL is the one that offered up the exclusive deal and gave at least 5 publisher/developers a chance at it. EA won. If EA didn't get the rights, someone else would have and Madden would spiral down the tubes as the NFL license is THAT important. It was an act of survival.

[/devils advocate]

The above doesn't necessarily mean I'm "okay" with the situation, I'm just saying I understand the position the NFL put developers in. I would still think it would be bad if Sega had won exclusitivity on a property that can practically make or break a console's popularity. As I have mentioned before (as have others), the possibility exists even more so now that Sony, Microsoft or even Nintendo could possibly sway EA into making Madden a console exclusive. It's Madden, people will buy consoles just to play Madden. THAT situation is what scares me the most for the video game marketplace.

[Nature Boy]

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Will other companies still not be able to make football games? I haven't heard anybody mention the NCAA license. And there's a Canadian Football League out there that I've been *dying* to see incorporated into it's own video game

Games like NFL Blitz won't go away, they'll just feature made up characters like an SSX does. For a game like NFL Blitz the license doesn't mean anything to me. I *loved* Cyberbowl Football and it didn't even use people let alone a license.

My biggest concern would be that EA would let the series suffer because they'd have no competition, but I have no reason to suspect that. They got where they are by producing a quality product - they're not going to stay there if they start releasing garbage and drag their name through the mud.

If had a choice I'd pick not giving any license to any one developer, but if I were going to pick one developer it had to go to it would be EA.

[LiquidX01]

**Moved from another thread**

Remember how there were rumours about how EA was going to charge to play their games online? Well, Now with the purchasing of the NFL licensing, thus leaving no competition for them, I can see EA finally charging to play games like Madden online. Dont think it will happen? I do.

[crazyjackcsa]

Here is what I was thinking, can Sega, or whover sign an exclusive deal with the NFL Players Assoc.? I rememeber in the Hockey world back in the Genesis Games you could get NHLPA Hockey and NHL Hockey. I'm not sure of the legal crap, but it would be interesting to see that happen, Good business move for EA, although incredibly evil.

[Nature Boy]

Here is what I was thinking, can Sega, or whover sign an exclusive deal with the NFL Players Assoc.?

Good point because yes, I believe they can.

To be honest the game with the team license is more appealing to me. It's the name on the front I cheer for, not the name on the back.

The online comment above is a pretty good one too. I can't get upset about that personally (yet) because I still don't play games online, but if I did I'd be ticked about it.

[kainemaxwell]

Copying a link and quote from the other topic:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sport...ory?id=1945691

"We believe that the decisions of the National Football League and Players Inc. to grant an exclusive license for videogames do a tremendous disservice to the consumers and sports fans whose funds ultimately support the NFL, by limiting their choices, curbing creativity and almost certainly leading to higher game prices," Nebb said.

[Lady Jaye]

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Will other companies still not be able to make football games? I haven't heard anybody mention the NCAA license. And there's a Canadian Football League out there that I've been *dying* to see incorporated into it's own video game

Hey, the CFL could indeed be a successful product. It could even be marketed to the US by including in the manual the differences in rules between the CFL and the NFL (there are several, enough to consider Canadian football as a related, albeit separate, version of American football, in the same way that softball is a derivative of baseball.

And dear Nature Boy, who would you pick as your team? The Argos? (or would it be the Ti-Cats?) I'd take you down as the Als! (for our US friends, I'm talking, respectively, of the Toronto Argonauts, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Montreal Alouettes)

[Dangerboy]

Considering I'm not exactly a sports person, ESPN NFL 2K5 is the first simulation sports game in 25 years of personal gaming that ever made me froth over said genre. I *HATE* sports games, passionately. 2K5 brought me around to the point that I played it until I had a perfect season including the super bowl.

That said, I am more frightened at what this represents, particularly over all.

EA holds the exclusive rights to NASCAR, PGA, NFL, FIFA (to a degree), Anything Bond, Anything LOTR Movie related, they now control my favorite racing game Burnout 3, and more. They are literally assimilating the industry one by one. I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years all we have is the Sony EA "PlayStation 3do" where every game released has shitty EA TRAX songs and doesn't allow you to download / upload anything because EA can't figure out that part of programming yet.

All I ask from Sega is ESPN Football 2K6, with the worlds first ever most insanely detailed customization engine ever. Let me have characters named Raye Louis and Terrello Wens and allow me to change them. Let me create the logos and colors or allow me to download emblems like DC Jet Grind RAdio did on the Dreamcast. We will have our ways possible, we just need to figure out how.

Jason

[goatdan]

I don't think that the NFL was forcing this on the developers, but the developers were trying to get it from the NFL -- and who wouldn't?

The one thing that I've noticed is that the more things EA gets, the more things I am less impressed with that they do. Sim City used to be one of my favorite game series, but SC4 is basically SC3K with slightly nicer graphics. Oh, and it draws roads for you where they don't make sense. I haven't been impressed at all.

I now own a few of the LOTR games (Two Towers and Return of the King, bought at the same time), and they look nice but the controls blow. It looks like they are supposed to be beat-em-ups, but they're just 'eh.

I bought 007 Nightfire because I found it cheap and loved Bond on the N64. The game is cool how you use all of the different gadgets and have to do varied stuff like driving and so on, but I have found the control a little lacking and the overall gameplay experience to be dull when you're in the FPS mode.

I haven't been impressed by EA's quality. And I won't be buying more games in these series unless I am somehow convinced that they control better. To me, it seems that EA is slowly moving to an Acclaim-style fall from grace.

These comments have nothing to do with the Madden series, as I don't own the newest game and from what I've played of it, it has been very solid. But in a general sense, it seems to me like the quality of their games has been going downhill, and without competition from Sega, I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL license took the same hit.

[evilmess]

This is really bad because it gives EA tremendous leveraging power over MS, Sony and Nintendo. "You want our NFL games on your console? OK, here are OUR terms"

This could make or break a console.

You see how this could greatly effect the outcome of the next console race if any single console doesn't have EA's NFL games and this could be potentially harmful to MS and Sony in particular if they don't get these games on there next console.