Yea! Madden to have some real competition again!

This is awesome news. If they do it right and stats/teams can be easily uploaded. Maybe it will make EA Sports work harder on their core game, cause for the last 3 years, it’s been quite uninspired and boring.

http://www.2ksports.com/media/news.php?id=2476&gid=&iType=6

No Chicago Bears=> Fail

This press release doesn’t say it will include real life team, so I’m assuming EA still has their legal NFL monopoly. Sure, from a gameplay viewpoint 2k might make EA want to work harder, but the market for these sort of games is all about emulating what you see on TV with the real players.

It won’t be licensed by the NFL, but I think there are enough people who want to play a football game that’s not Madden, that they’ll do just fine with it.

Also, I bet they sell it for less than $59.99.

Given I’ve really enjoyed this series since the Dreamcast, I’m definitely going to give it a shot.

Oh, certainly there is a chance for the game to be profitable, but thats a shade different then “real competion” with EA’s bread and butter.

Anyone know how long EA has the NFL locked up?

Depends how you define competition. If 2K puts out a better game for the next couple years, maybe the NFL grants them the exclusive license instead of EA? Or even better, the exclusivity is dropped altogether and anyone can pay for the license and make a better football game with real NFL teams and stars.

By not releasing anything, they’re just conceding the market entirely to EA and there’s no chance of potentially gaining it back when the contract runs out (which I think is like two years from now).

grants them? dont you mean sell them for a bajillion dollars? does take2 have that kind of scratch? you hear more about their financial shenanigans than any other publisher.

This was the case for several years. We all saw how that turned out. Money talks.

They have crack and hookers and bad ass guys with guns. Their next game is grand theft NFL license.

I’m incredibly excited that 2k is back in the football game. Be it with real teams or not, I’ll play it. I can only hope Madden pays at least some attention when 2k releases with features Madden hasn’t managed to include some three years since 2k stopped making football games.

Just curious. What shenanigans?

I think you guys misunderstood me. I certainly expect 2K to have to pay for a license, exclusive or non-exclusive, when the EA Sports monopoly runs out. I also expect them to have plenty of scratch around to do that and outbid EA if it comes to that.

What I think they gain by having a better game than Madden at that time, is a little bit of leverage to get the NFL to reconsider the exclusivity, at the very least. I don’t think they can go into negotiations with the NFL having nothing on the racks and say, “Yeah, we can make a better game than them.” If you have a better, but unlicensed, game on the shelf, you’ve got something to bargain with.

I’m not so sure about that. Most observers consider what EA paid to be outrageous and marginally profitable for them at best. EA is the only company that could afford that kind of deal and only because the license gives them a monopoly on NFL games.

The NFL is only going to care about money, not product quality. If somebody offers more for an exclusive deal then they would get for a bunch of smaller non-exclusive deals they will take the exclusive.

http://pollux.arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/1/31/6827

money quote - “the rumors put it at $300 - $500 million”

This is the sad, sad truth.

I wouldn’t look to the NFL for help. They were short sighted when they signed the original deal -

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

“I’m surprise that the naïveté of the NFL and its players,” said Pachter. “By giving a five-year license and giving EA an exclusive, they’re going to eliminate all of the competition. So in five years, the license fee is going to be whatever EA decides it wants to pay.”

Even scarier, if you enjoyed NBA2K7 this year -

Microsoft last year purchased the rights to the “High Heat Baseball” franchise – and would likely fight to keep those relevant. (And Microsoft’s about the only company in the gaming space that could engage EA in a bidding war and win.)
Basketball? It’d be an easier fight. There’s an ESPN NBA game and publisher Midway also puts one out – but neither would be able to match EA’s price. And the NBA surely wouldn’t mind getting a premium on their license fees.

The NBA won’t do it, since that article, they are not interested in going exlusive. mlb already went “thirda party” exclusive with 2k.

Would it necessarily be that bad? I mean, people are still developing video games, even if they aren’t football games.

Know what would suck? If the lesser of two video game franchises bought up exclusive rights. For five years. That would blow.

I’m pretty sure EA will make plenty of money over the five years of the deal. If they don’t, then they won’t bid as much next time. That’s really all there is to it.