Sure, this is terrible for people who like to play video games. I’m just wondering if it will be so terrible for the NFL.
You know it occurs to me that Congress might save us here.
Currently the MLB is looking to go exclusive with it’s Extra Innings package with DirecTV. This has gotten the attention of Congress, who have also noticed that NFL Sunday Ticket is a DirecTV exclusive.
MLB and the NFL (don’t know about the NBA or NHL for that matter) enjoy Congressionally-granted exemptions to US antitrust laws. It doesn’t come up that often but it does happen that Congress threatens them with a review of their exemption. It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the EA deal could come up.
Guaranteed moola? I doubt that’s going to be bad for the NFL.
In the short term, but by the contract being so long that allows EA to really kill all competition and come time to renew they’ll probably be able to dictate the terms to the NFL and not quite the other way around.
the NFL bangs supermodels on waterbeds filled with cash at this point, I doubt they care much one way or another about gamers.
I do think football games add a level of geekoid devotion to the RL game, just like fantasy football does, but the popularity of madden is due to the popularity of the NFL, not an indication of the quality (or lack thereof) of madden.
I do think EA is engaging in monopolistic (sp?) predatory behavior here, I do think it will have to be a lawsuit or an legislative remedy. Whos the politician who going to actually stand up for gamers here?
I’m going to start holding my breath…never.
How is this EA’s fault? The NFL could have decided the license wasn’t exclusive; they just happened to go the other way and contracted it to EA. Once the contract expires, the NFL can go the other way if they like.
Troy
Yeah, I’m all for hating on EA, but this isn’t their fault so much the NFL’s. The NFL decided an exclusive contract was a good thing and allowed EA to purchase that, no matter who came up with the idea first (and I don’t know).
Who says an action needs to be against EA? The NFL uses public money to build stadiums, gets tax breaks, its players are above the law, ect.
I’m not sure of the particulars, I do know MLB enjoys some special status as “america’s game” that every now and then congress threatens to take away to make baseball more responsive to the public.
Mayhap the NFL is vunerable to the same pressures, but probably not.
Which has nothing to do with the game license. At all. Team logos, team names and player likenesses are the property of the NFL. (Stats, it can be argued, are public record.) If there was another football league (USFL, AFL) it would have the same rights over its property.
Troy
It’s fairly obvious that the people who enjoy playing football games will buy this, while the people who play games that feature their favorite NFL team or player (the bulk of the market) will stick with whatever has the latest roster of real-world players (Madden, for now).
That said, I abso-fucking-lutely hate football and own a copy of NFL2K5, because I appreciate quality games that have a slick presentation, well thought out gameplay mechanics and that little extra indistinguishable “something.”
hey, Im just brainstorming here, you’re not getting with program.
But, point taken. The decision rests with the NFL, I doubt they look at the long term implications, just the cash mountain EA pushes at them.
And given Madden’s is insanely popularity the NFL isn’t risking much by locking themselves in. (until EA starts shipping radioactive turds with NFL branded on them)
The best chance to see more than one licensed game is that when EA’s deal is up the price of an exclusive deal is prohibitive. I’m sure each of the networks would love to have exclusive rights to broadcast games, but the cost is just too much.
WHY HAVENT I SEEN THIS ON CRIBS YET
Not only can it be argued as such, it has been found so.