Feb 12 2008
NFL Video Game Rights: Pwned!
If you were hoping another video game company might get a shot at giving the all-powerful Madden series some competition in the near future … well, you might as well be hoping for the Miami Dolphins to win the Super Bowl before the decade’s over. EA Sports’ iron clad grip on American football will now last beyond the end of the Mayan calendar.
Just over three years ago, Electronic Arts tackled the sports genre by announcing it had signed a multiyear exclusivity deal with the National Football League and the NFL Players, the players’ union. Under the agreement, EA Sports’ Madden NFL franchise was the sole official licensee for the US’ most popular sport, forcing rival 2K Sports to get creative with its own pro-football series.
Today, EA Sports announced that it has extended its contract with the NFL and NFL Players through the 2012 season. That means the Redwood City, California-based publisher will retain exclusive game rights to all NFL teams, stadiums, and player likenesses and information through until the Super Bowl XLVII champion is crowned in 2013.
So there. 
EA Sports’ competition in the American football video game market now consists of digitized old-timers and doomed attempts at recapturing nostalgia. Other companies make college football games, yes, but if you want to recreate the NFL experience on your Xbox, PlayStation or Wii, you have to give EA your money.
I still think it’s a bad move for the NFL, because competition makes these games better in the long run. EA has to make FIFA 09 better to withstand competition from Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer. Plus, if the NFL really wanted to diversify its existing video game properties like it says, it wouldn’t limit itself to one video game company.
Let’s not lie, though — Madden is a license to print money. If EA Sports wants to pony up the cash for an exclusive deal, the NFL won’t say no to the truckloads of cash they’ll receive from it. Plus, EA will make it all back in sales, and everyone else is out of luck.
Hey, maybe other video game companies can get in on this United Football League startup that Mark Cuban is helping to build. After all, what young football fan wouldn’t love to re-create that glorious David Carr-to-Charles Rogers touchdown combo that’s sure to come our way this fall?
(Spotted on FanHouse)
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I agree , just look at EA ’s great Rugby world cup game , which wasn’t even for the PS3 or xbox 360
Why wasn’t Rugby 08 ported to the bigger consoles, anyway? Was it just not big enough? Or not good enough?
Because the IRB didn’t seem to care to had no way to push EA into releasing it . If we can have 2 Gaelic football games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_Games:Football_2 and a hurling one albeit for the ps2, surely a rugby game wouldn’t of been that much trouble
[...] NFL experience on your Xbox, PlayStation or Wii, you have to give EA your money…. source: NFL Video Game Rights: Pwned!, Dave’s Football [...]
I’m not a fan of monopolies. I think EA got freaked out when NFL 2K came out and got great reviews. I don’t know…I feel like it’s cowardly of EA to buy an exclusive license and then on top of that extend it. Can you picture Windows without Mac or Burger King without McDonald’s? Competition is the American way. Imagine how good Madden would be if it had competition the last four years! This is a move centered around what has brought America and the world into a recession….GREED!
When EA first announced it was buying the license, I thought it was a joke, but after I found out it was real I boycotted Madden. Now, since EA extended its rights, if I continue to boycott what was once my favorite genre in video games, I will have missed most of my 30’s, and that’s quite a shame. So, I may play 2010 because my choice is play NFL 2K5 ( quite a few players are no longer in the league), Madden 2010 or don’t play at all. The options I have are uncomfortable. It’s like a gun is pressed up against my forehead and I have to pick one.
In closing, I just want to state that I was a real Madden head, but FORCING me to play and not give me a choice is UN-AMERICAN.
Shame on you NFL and Shame on you EA Sports.