EA Extends NFL Exclusivity License till February 2013 - Ouch!

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Redwood City, Calif.-based EA said Tuesday that it would be extending its exclusive deal with the National Football League and NFL Players Club until the end of the 2012 season, which ends in February 2013.

The deal extension means that EA will continue to hold the exclusive rights to develop, publish and distribute handheld, PC and console games with real NFL players, stadiums and teams for the next five years.

EA signed the original five-year exclusivity deal with the NFL in 2004, causing a wave of controversy, as the agreement effectively disallowed other NFL licensed games—namely Madden NFL rival NFL 2K—from releasing.

EA will also have access to content from NFL Films and the NFL Network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 20-year-old Madden NFL franchise continues to be a top-selling franchise for EA, and has generated over $2 billion in retail sales.

“This is all about bringing authenticity and realism to NFL videogames," said Eric Grubman, president of NFL Ventures.

“Game quality is our top priority, and we're committed to pushing our gameplay innovation, connecting football fans via rich online experiences and delivering the most visually stunning sports games on the market,” said EA Sports president Peter Moore.
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http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9078&Itemid=2

I'm not a sports fan or sports game fan but I know this sucks for a lot of you guys.
 
I accepted this as inevitable when they signed the first deal back in '04. EA and the NFL's boring, play-it-ubersafe ass were meant for each other. Good on "Darth Sternious" for not allowing his league to follow suit.
 
I buy madden every few years since nothing realy changes. yeah, players and such, but i dont care about that. with the radio announcer, if they bring back madden and michaels im in, but College football will remain my choice.. although its EA, i guess im not really making a difference!

MLB 2K8, here i come. And yes, ItsTrueItsTrue92, i will be joining you on that Xport.
 
I'm not really into american football but am the real football (aka soccer). But I do have fun playing the game at my cousin's or should I say get my ass handed to me. He'll play with the worst team and I'll always have an all star pro bowl team, still won't work.

But he buys every madden that comes out. He also buys, on occasion, 2k football titles. I don't see this as good for the genre but there really isn't any other sporting genre that has the impact that Madden does
 
[quote name='seanr1221']People are still on 2K's dick after APF?[/quote]

I think people are more interested in an alternative to Madden more than anything. The only 2K title that is CLEARLY better than it's EA counterpart in the NBA 2K series. The football games are just a matter of personal preference.

That being said, if people want to keep playing NFL 2K5 I don't see anything wrong with that. Hell, I played Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES constantly even when Madden, Gameday, and the first SK games came out.
 
[quote name='Richlough']This just in , I've extended my not giving a shit about football until the year 3000 .[/quote]

I hope you mean football games, and not just football. ;)
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']I hope you mean football games, and not just football. ;)[/quote]


well with how crappy both the NCAA and NFL football seasons turned out this year, I wouldn't blame if he did mean football in general.
 
[quote name='SL4IN']well with how crappy both the NCAA and NFL football seasons turned out this year, I wouldn't blame if he did mean football in general.[/quote]

?

I thought the NFL season was pretty exciting this year (unless you are a Pats fan). The NCAA just needs a playoff system like every other level of football has.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']?

I thought the NFL season was pretty exciting this year (unless you are a Pats fan). The NCAA just needs a playoff system like every other level of football has.[/quote]

NCAA is a business, it's no longer about football, and having a playoff system wouldn't generate enough revenue. It would never happen. The way the season turned out this year, it just proved how broken the BCS ranking system is.

And I'm a Cowboys fan. The season this year was just bad. It was all generated around the Pats and every word/statement they made. Then it was about how they couldn't live up in the big game.

Like I said, both terrible, terrible seasons.
 
Madden sucks..... I tried this year's version and it bites..... man, I think after this extension, EA will just keep extending their contract with NFL...... as long as they don't touch the NBA I'm ok cause Live sucks big time
 
[quote name='SL4IN']NCAA is a business, it's no longer about football, and having a playoff system wouldn't generate enough revenue. It would never happen. The way the season turned out this year, it just proved how broken the BCS ranking system is.

And I'm a Cowboys fan. The season this year was just bad. It was all generated around the Pats and every word/statement they made. Then it was about how they couldn't live up in the big game.

Like I said, both terrible, terrible seasons.[/quote]

How will it not generate enough revenue? Are you kidding? A playoff like March Madness? Revenue wouldn't be a problem.

There is a guy on St. Louis talk radio who has a theory about it (he's based in Atlanta, just has a St. Louis show). He thinks that if it went to a playoff there would be to MUCH money, thus making it more difficult to justify not giving any to players. Say what you want about a free education, that is just his theory.

A playoff would generate much more revenue than there is now. Imagine Super Bowl ratings of this year, ever year. It would be enormous. They can still get the bowl sponorships. Just label each game in the rounds with the seperate bowl names. I don't see why this would be a problem. The championship game each year at the end of the playoffs would just rotate, the exact same way it does now.

As it is, the championship game is something like 55 days between when the last regular season game is until the championship game. That is absolutely absurd.
 
Game quality is our top priority

I am in no way excusing EA for NFL Tour, but I have to believe that they veered away from the NFL Street franchise* per the mandate of the ever-increasingly humorless and vanilla No Fun League. Add the parameters of what the NFL must've given them to EA's own hypercalculated nature, along with what must've been some really 'brilliant' focus groups, and that's what you get.

EA probably got this exclusivity deal because they're more willing to 'play nice' with what the league wants, which is displaying a product that is completely dishonest to the way it really goes down on the field each Sunday, with factors like weather and fatigue and intense crowd reactions being rendered irrelevant. Remember the nonexistent fatigue in Madden on the 360 a couple years ago (or was it last year)? Don't tell me that was an honest-to-goodness oversight. The NFL just doesn't want it's players looking like anything less than near-gods.

I also think most sports have horrendous atmosphere, and it's due as much to some sort of corporate-minded fandom 'political correctness' that the various leagues mandate as it is developer laziness. That shit ain't ever changin', not appreciably, anyway. Bryan Intihar was commenting on the latest "1up Yours" that MLB 2K8 plays "Cleveland Rocks" even when the Indians are on the road. Again, not a bug, but instead coddling the knuckle-draggers who are playing/buying the game and want to have a positive experience as much as possible, realism be damned.

*--Which really wasn't all that great to begin with, right?
 
[quote name='schuerm26']How will it not generate enough revenue? Are you kidding? A playoff like March Madness? Revenue wouldn't be a problem.

There is a guy on St. Louis talk radio who has a theory about it (he's based in Atlanta, just has a St. Louis show). He thinks that if it went to a playoff there would be to MUCH money, thus making it more difficult to justify not giving any to players. Say what you want about a free education, that is just his theory.

A playoff would generate much more revenue than there is now. Imagine Super Bowl ratings of this year, ever year. It would be enormous. They can still get the bowl sponorships. Just label each game in the rounds with the seperate bowl names. I don't see why this would be a problem. The championship game each year at the end of the playoffs would just rotate, the exact same way it does now.

As it is, the championship game is something like 55 days between when the last regular season game is until the championship game. That is absolutely absurd.[/quote]


other the argument of money, Another main concern of most advertisers is that they wouldn't have their bowl games anymore. A playoff system would eliminate things like the Papajohns.com bowl, Meineke car care bowl or the Champs sports bowl. Hence, they wouldn't get their advertising in, which could be argued to the extent of loss of profits due to less advertising.

Truth is, it would have to sit well with everybody, and not everyone is willing to compromise.
 
Could someone PM me some info on these updated roster for 2K5? I'm interested, but hadn't heard anything about it until... well, right now.
 
I can't help but feel disappointed about EA having exclusives rights to the NFL franchise...
Its been going on two years and I'm still waiting for a decent PS3 version of madden.
I'm definitely not going to buy crap from EA on day one... Im going to at least wait and make sure that its worth a dime.

I feel bad for 2k, but they still can do boxing [which they'r working on], UFC, Tennis , etc. and 2k still has a strong Basketball franchise. The NFL license is a huge blow but there's a lot of other sports out there to be gamed.
 
Great news. I know theres a lot of those people who hate the top dog out there but this is a good thing. Yes I would rather NFL allow multiple companies to create NFL games but they wont. So rather then let the overrated 2k Sports have the exclusive license (anyone play All Pro... Ouch) at least EA Sports gets it.

Yea it doesnt change a lot from year to year other then graphics and roster, but seriously, how much can it possibly change? People just love to bitch though, oh well.
 
There is NO reason why a playoff would force the elimination of bowl games. Hell, they can't even work out the transition step of a "Plus-One" scenario (effectively creating a "Final Four" consisting of three bowl games). I'm not exactly sure what the line of reasoning is for the hypocritical and money-hungry college presidents and NCAA, but until people stop watching the bowls and stop talking college football, the games, they aren't a-changin'. So, yeah, college pigskin playoffs, ETA: NEVER.

Sports fans are worse than smack junkies. And Nintendo zealots.
 
[quote name='seanr1221']People are still on 2K's dick after APF?[/quote]APF sucked, but I Think they were given a big enough budget to make that game, since it wasnt a NFL game.
 
[quote name='SL4IN']other the argument of money, Another main concern of most advertisers is that they wouldn't have their bowl games anymore. A playoff system would eliminate things like the Papajohns.com bowl, Meineke car care bowl or the Champs sports bowl. Hence, they wouldn't get their advertising in, which could be argued to the extent of loss of profits due to less advertising.

Truth is, it would have to sit well with everybody, and not everyone is willing to compromise.[/quote]

Why would it eliminate that? I went to ESPN.com and counted 27 bowls this past year.

Each playoff game would be sponsored by someone (exactly the same as the bowls are now). You can't tell me you think more people would watch the papajohns.com bowl in this current format than they would in a playoff format.

You would have 1 team playing in more than 1 bowl though. Advertising for these companies would increase with a playoff format.
 
[quote name='seanr1221']People are still on 2K's dick after APF?[/QUOTE]

I'm on 2K's...err...well, yes, that is to say "I still hold a great deal of reverence for 2K" after NFL 2K5. APF was the drizzling shits, but NFL 2K5 still stands strong as one of the finest football experiences ever created.

If 2K would release a new APF (which, given the sales and liquidation of the title, may not happen), go back to 2K-style gameplay and quality, and most importantly, allow for customization such that NFL teams and stadiums could be faithfully recreated...then I'd be interested. Their poor excuse for insisting gamers play in stadiums with giant dragons in them (at least I think I remember that) was unacceptable to begin with, and the poor gameplay itself just a slap in the face of those who bought it expecting next-gen 2K5.

All that said, this news is particularly unsurprising, and not really a big deal anyway. By the time EA's initial exclusivity expired, even if they hadn't extended it, it would have been around a decade since 2K5, and any publisher hoping to put out an NFL title by then would have to start from scratch anyway.
 
i was one of those believers who dropped full price on apf. I still think ppl are too hard on that game. Its not 2k5 but its something different.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']I think people are more interested in an alternative to Madden more than anything. The only 2K title that is CLEARLY better than it's EA counterpart in the NBA 2K series. The football games are just a matter of personal preference.

That being said, if people want to keep playing NFL 2K5 I don't see anything wrong with that. Hell, I played Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES constantly even when Madden, Gameday, and the first SK games came out.[/quote]

I'd say that's a pretty spot-on assessment.

Also, I'm curious about how APF's gameplay compared to 2k5? I thought they were very similar-probably too similar. EA rebuilt Madden's engine for this gen, so I hope that's gonna start seeing some great returns. I really would like to have some competition though.
 
I'd buy Madden over 2K anyway. I really didn't enjoy 2k5 all that much anyway. I don't care who makes it, football is football.
All I want is Adrian Peterson to stay FAR FAR away from the cover.
Madden 09 will be mine day 1.
 
[quote name='guyver2077']i was one of those believers who dropped full price on apf. I still think ppl are too hard on that game. Its not 2k5 but its something different.[/QUOTE]

APF in a lot of ways was a better footbal game than Madden.
 
Gameplay wise, APF > Madden 08. Yeah it lacked in extras and notable improvement. But I believe that's because of the limited time, man power and money spent on the game.

If it was NFL 2k8, it would've blown Madden away in every conceivable way.

Anyhow this news makes me :cry:

Everytime I'm on the cusp of being a big Football fan, EA has to do everything in there power to try and ruin it for me.
 
NOOOOOOOO!!!
Dammit, just when it looked like EA's rein of terror was about to end we get 5 more years of paying $60 for roster updates.
 
[quote name='ananag112']Well, 2014 is the year the world ends so I guess that is why they didn't spend the money to extend it that far.[/quote]

That's according to the Mayan calendar right?
 
[quote name='Chitown021']NOOOOOOOO!!!
Dammit, just when it looked like EA's rein of terror was about to end we get 5 more years of paying $60 for roster updates.
[/quote]Licenses are licenses. Nobody got all bent out of shape when Atari recently renewed the Dragon Ball license. What EA and the NFL are doing is no different. Personally, I would love to be able to play MVP Baseball again, but since 2K has THAT license, I can't.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Licenses are licenses. Nobody got all bent out of shape when Atari recently renewed the Dragon Ball license. What EA and the NFL are doing is no different. Personally, I would love to be able to play MVP Baseball again, but since 2K has THAT license, I can't.[/quote]


I disagree. A license for a product that has such wide spread appeal like the NFL is a much bigger deal than a license for a cartoon. I was bummed because I was looking forward to 2K getting another crack at improving on NFL 2K5.
 
The next football game I'll buy will be in 2013 then I guess. Unless Madden gets extended again. Some publisher REALLY needs to sue over anti-trust laws here. They'd win in a heartbeat.

When's Tecmo Bowl returning again? If that's not good, I'm going out and spending the $20-$30 on a 32-team Tecmo Super Bowl NES cart.
 
Honestly, I'm curious as to why people hate Madden so much? Is it about the gameplay or the "every year is just a roster update" thing?

I would still buy 2K's football games if it was the only series on the market.
 
[quote name='primetime']Honestly, I'm curious as to why people hate Madden so much? Is it about the gameplay or the "every year is just a roster update" thing?

I would still buy 2K's football games if it was the only series on the market.[/quote]


Every year something is fucking broken with the game, whether it's the dbs, jumping WR's that glitch (which their fix was to make it so WR's can't jump... this is football... fucking morons), broken passing, defenses where LB's can teleport and jump 10 feet up to pick you off, broken run blocking, broken pass blocking, too many pancake blocks, people who roll out of the pocket until the defense breaks, features being taken out of games, new features being added that don't add much, broken drafts, no field goal nets... kicks just hit an imaginary wall... their fix... follow the kick for a shorter amount of time to hide it... the fact it took them until nearly the end of the season to come out with a roster update, franchises that break every fucking year because there aren't enough FB's.... I could go on if you wanted.

I'll add, they make us their fucking testers and whore our game out with in game ads, that save us nothing. Plus they take off the servers for older games, thus making the achievements impossible... oh broken achievements as well... ahh shit, I got to stop.

So that's why a lot of people are pissed off with EA. That isn't even the whole story, but there you go.
 
[quote name='Trenchalicious']Every year something is fucking broken with the game, whether it's the dbs, jumping WR's that glitch (which their fix was to make it so WR's can't jump... this is football... fucking morons), broken passing, defenses where LB's can teleport and jump 10 feet up to pick you off, broken run blocking, broken pass blocking, too many pancake blocks, people who roll out of the pocket until the defense breaks, features being taken out of games, new features being added that don't add much, broken drafts, no field goal nets... kicks just hit an imaginary wall... their fix... follow the kick for a shorter amount of time to hide it... the fact it took them until nearly the end of the season to come out with a roster update, franchises that break every fucking year because there aren't enough FB's.... I could go on if you wanted.

I'll add, they make us their fucking testers and whore our game out with in game ads, that save us nothing. Plus they take off the servers for older games, thus making the achievements impossible... oh broken achievements as well... ahh shit, I got to stop.

So that's why a lot of people are pissed off with EA. That isn't even the whole story, but there you go.[/quote]

Yeah, that's what I was looking for, thanks. I could add a lot to that list if you wanted :) Don't get me started with the highlight stick.

Those are all legit points and pretty much the headaches that I mentioned before. The thing is, the game could be so much better if they just fixed the small things. I pretty much can overlook all the little bugs since the core gameplay is solid...or maybe because I have to if I want to play a football game.
 
I haven't read this thread, but the NFL is run by a bunch of rapacious assholes. I haven't purchased a Madden since 99. I played 06 or 07 (can't remember which) from a friend's rental, but I've told everyone not to purchase Madden since they gained exclusivity. My family and friends have hated it since Madden went exclusive.
 
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