EA Sports buys exclusive rights to NFL and NFL Players Association.
Posted by: steve | From: December 14, 2004
EA Sports took a big step towards monopoly as they have bought the exclusive rights to the NFL teams and players for all video games. This should most definitely put an end to the football game wars that have been heavily contested the last few years between EA's Madden Football series and the NFL2K later known as ESPN Football series. Madden has been the champ, but their competitors have come closer and closer every year and this year made the drastic move of pricing their game at $19.99 instead of the normal $49.99. Madden had to eventually drop their price to $29.99 in response. Therefore, EA has gone for the jugular, in a deal that must be (one speculation is that the deal is for 1 billion) in the millions and millions of dollars.
I would be surprised if ESPN tries to even release a football game next year. If they do release a game next year they will have to go NES Play Action Football and/or Winning Eleven Soccer style and use fake team names and fake player names or just player numbers. This will also harm the more arcade style NFL Blitz series. So, it looks like the only NFL football games will be Madden and EA's arcady NFL Street.
I enjoy the Madden games and I think they will continue to release good games, but you never like to see the options which to choose from reduced. So, I say...RIP 1st person mode, RIP slightly better graphics. I think the big question that remains is will EA Sports try to make similar deals with the NBA and MLB?
I think this deal should be shot down by the government, a monopoly is illegal.
Nobody but EA is in favor of this. I thought the ESPN 2K5 was a superior game and EA just
acknowledged it by making sure it doesn't have to play by the rules any more.
I think all gamers should boycott EA, don't buy a
single game from these greedy bastards in retaliation
for these bad business practices.
Posted by: FreshCut_T70 at January 21, 2005 10:02 PM
This is just EA's pathetic attempt in beating there compitetion. Instead of a straight up fight. Ea goes for the shot in the back. Fuck EA!!!!!!!
Posted by: Nick at February 15, 2005 9:27 PM
This is some bullshit - and surprisingly went unnoticed by me. I'm a Madden partisan, but definitely don't want to see the fat man get even lazier...
Will ESPN hark back to the days of the Cleveland Dinosaurs? But even Tecmo Bowl had a NFLPA agreement...
Posted by: caps at March 22, 2005 9:38 AM
The NFL is to blame far more then EA. Boycott NFL logo products as well. EA's greed is only as deep as the NFL's. This is an outrage.
Posted by: John at May 9, 2005 4:13 AM
Well this is just great...now we will see another 15 years of Madden games that improve ever so slightly every year if at all. I'm sticking with ESPN 2k5 until the deal is terminated, even if it is in fact another 15 years.
Posted by: Tom at May 10, 2005 8:51 PM
One more thing, in case you guys haven't seen the previews of Madden 2k6, it doesn't look much better. Also, EA's Next Generation or whatever is pretty much ESPN with facial expressions and fireworks.
Posted by: Tom at May 10, 2005 8:53 PM
Madden is wack compared to NFl2k5, this is obvious and shouldnt it be obvious that variety is what makes video games great these days? The only problem is that Madden sucks and he should eat his red eyebrows and fall off a cliff with ea sports holding his fat hands
Posted by: Jake at September 8, 2005 6:37 AM
I think if E.A. buy all rights there will be on fun. if it do happen that mean E.A. isn't as good as they say.
Posted by: mel lee at October 18, 2005 7:02 AM
DAMN THIS SHIT IS FUCKED UP I LOVE THE NFL 2K5 AND I WAS WAITING 4 2K6 AND DAMN NOW WITH THIS FUCKING MONOPOLY THATS SUPPOSED 2 BE ILLEGAL HAS FUCKED EVERYTHING UP. MADDEN IS A GOOD GAME DONT GET ME WRONG BUT ITS NICE 2 HAVE OPTIONS AND 4 US BROKE FOLKS WE WOULD RATHER GO WITH THE 19.99 OPTION. WELL FUCK IT GUESS WE JUST GOTTA DEAL WITH IT. I DONT THINK THIS DEAL WOULD AFFECT BLITZ THE LEAGUE BECAUSE ITS NOT REAL TEAMS OR REAL PLAYERS SO HOPEFULLY THE BLITZ SAGA SHALL CONTINUE.
Posted by: Jairo at December 12, 2005 10:00 AM
YEA, MADDEN SUCKS. HE LOOKS AS IF HE'S NOT REALLY GOIN TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE DEAL ANYWAY IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. IT DOESNT LOOK LIKE ANYONES MIND IS GOIN TO CHANGE ANY TIME SOON ABOUT THIS WHOLE DEAL SO, IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE JUST GOIN TO HAVE TA WAIT FOR HIS UNTIMELY PASSING.
I WAS JUST THINK'N IF "2K" DOES COME BACK. THEY'LL PROBLY MAKE AN ENTIRE GAME LIKE THE "CREATE YOUR OWN TEAM, CREATE YOUR PLAYER" THATS ON THE 2K3-5 SERISE. THAT'LL B COOL. I THINK. THE ONLY THING MISSIN WILL B THE TEAMS AND ACTUAL PLAYERS. BUT THAT DOESNT MEAN IT'LL SUCK.
Posted by: adonis guerra at September 19, 2006 6:35 PM
This must be kind of good news to a football loving Gamecube owner who is kind of bummed about not being able to try the new ESPN game?
I do fear that this hurts the sports video game market overall--without significant competition will Madden try harder to improve, or just stick to the updated roster, new soundtrack edition.
Posted by: J_John at December 15, 2004 12:51 AM