You’d think the NFL would make them basically pay for everything.
That’s what I’d think.
Can they afford to snatch up the NBA and MLB too? I doubt it.
Umm, well, EA is sitting on about $2B in cash with almost no liabilities. Net assets are like $2.5B.
In other words, if EA had to pay $100M for this license, they wouldn’t have blinked. They could have done it, even if Madden was break even for 5 years, just to get a competitor’s code base stale enough that EA has all relevant patents and technology for football games when the PS4 shows up (which is about when the license expires).
Who else thinks that Sega is probably scrambling to try and get the college football license?
I don’t think there’s “a” college football license. I’m guessing you have to negotiate either with individual schools or at least conferences?
Man, this sucks. Not the biggest football gamer anymore, but one company locking up rights like this is terrible for sports gaming as a whole. And I think the rights would have been a hell of a lot more than $100 million, BTG. For exclusivity like this, I would think the price would be at least three times that number.
With College ball you negotiate with the NCAA as I recall. They have a fairly strict policy about not letting college players names be used, so it actually simplifies the licensing somewhat.
I bet there’s some kind of profit sharing going on with the NFL. They may also see it as a way to deliver more audience to the new NFL channel and drives sales of NFL Ticket.
I’d like to see them try a game that doesn’t use the real players and teams but rather takes the Baseball Stars approach to the game. All fantasy players and teams but with individual players that you can play, trade, have personality, etc. However a game like that would probably sell like crap so I doubt they’ll bother now.
Either way, just when I started becoming a real sports gamer again, EA has effectively killed my interest in at least one of those sports. If they do the same with hockey it’ll be doubly horrible since Madden is at least a competent game. EA’s NHL games are NOTHING like real hockey while Sega’s are as close as I think anyone’s gotten.
At the very least, you’ve got a job for the next five years, Jim. Congratulations on that. I think only the makers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have that kind of job security.
It’s worth noting that the linked story and the version on GameSpot don’t indicate the start date for this agreement. Conceivably, that could be some ways off, as other sports-minded publishers, like Sega, presumably have deals in place for the next season or three.
Once EA’s exclusive is in place, will Sega start making Arena Football League games instead? :)
I have nothing personal against Madden football, but I hate this type of agreement. I really wish other companies could keep publishing their games. I always preferred ESPN football vastly to Madden myself, and if Madden is going to be the only game on the market, I hope they improve their shortcomings to make it more palatable.
Agreed. I’ll admit that I usually play through NFL seasons as my favorite team, but if you put in easy-to-use tools to build and manage your own league with custom teams, I would play a non-NFL football game as long as the core engine is solid.
I also think there’s an opportunity to make a more interesting multiplayer game than typical 11-on-11 football. Make a serious 7-on-7 game with tweaked rules and build it around online play (3OL/QB/RB/2WR). Every year, players complain (with good reason) about cheese moves to exploit the AI – maybe this is a chance for developers to free themslves of building an NFL simulation and do something that works better in the context of a videogame.
The NFL deserves at least half, if not more, of the “Evil” tag. From the article on Gamespot:
A source close to the negotiations said it was at a spring, 2004, off-site meeting attended by top NFL officials that the league determined it would take the league license exclusive. GameSpot was told the league put the license up for bid and that EA was among as many as five software publishers competing for it. An EA spokesperson said today, “Obviously, exclusives are more expensive. We are most certainly paying a premium.”
The NFL is trying to make more money. I think it still sucks for the consumer, but I mostly blame the whiny millionaires that run and play in the NFL.
EA plans Madden 2006 between $65-$70 #1
It seems they paid a hefty price for the NFL exclusivity deal and according to rumors from some EA insiders, next year’s Madden will come out at leat at $65. They’ve been doing focus group and surveys for weeks.
“EA plans Madden 2006 between $65-$70 #1
It seems they paid a hefty price for the NFL exclusivity deal and according to rumors from some EA insiders, next year’s Madden will come out at leat at $65. They’ve been doing focus group and surveys for weeks.”
This again. Sigh. If the exclusivity deal was free, they’d charge the same amount.
