February 12, 2008
Do you love John Madden Football 2008? I sure hope so.
Today, Electronic Arts (EA) announced that its EXCLUSIVE licensing agreements with the NFL and the NFL PLAYERS to develop and distribute football video games have been extended. The extensions, which were negotiated separately are extensions of the original December 2004 agreement, and will carry EA’s exclusive licensing into February 2013. From EA,
This is all about bringing authenticity and realism to NFL videogames ,” said Eric Grubman, President of NFL Ventures. “EA SPORTS continually works to maintain the cutting edge for NFL products across a variety of gaming platforms. We like the fact that they never rest.”
“This is great news and it means we can continue to produce the best interactive experience possible. It also allows NFL PLAYERS, the NFL and EA to continue to build our brands,” said Gene Upshaw, Chairman of NFL PLAYERS and Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association. “We offer a very unique experience.”
Alrighty…Five more years of Madden football. I’m not going to lie, I purchase the game every single year, and would be 
willing to put my skills up against anyone else’s, but seriously…another exclusive deal? I understand that the NFL has a great commodity, and deals such as these enable the NFL to take money in hand over fist (Madden 2008 generated over 2 billion dollars in retail sales), but the NFL clearly doesn’t care a whole lot about the people buying the product. EA’s video game monopoly allows them to make 1 change to Madden, update the rosters, and sell essentially the same product for 60-70 dollars each year. Now, back before 2004, when other football games could use NFL Players (ahem, the NFL 2K series, for example) EA was forced to actually try and make a decent product at a decent price. Honestly, it is more than likely that EA went after this exclusive deal back in 2004 because they were worried about ESPN and other series cutting into their market share (this was back when the ESPN game was selling for $20 dollars to EA’s $40 dollar game). Those were the days. Until 2013, looks like all we have to look forward to is updated rosters, and…well, yeah, just updated rosters. E-A-Sports. It’s in the Game, and the one you have now is going to look pretty darn familiar in 2012.
Sure, I’m being a little harsh towards EA sports, and yes, Madden is a great game…I just wish consumers had a choice.
EA: Extends Interactive Video game agreements with NFL & NFL Players
2 comments
I love madden, I set up online leagues with my buddies and we run entire seasons on the EA network. For that reason alone I feel the price is worth it for the pc version but for a platform version I have to agree. It’s expensive to not get much new bang for the buck.
We’ll have to play sometime
I agree completely, we need a choice. 2K sports makes the best games compaired to EA. The NFL just see’s the dollars coming in. I admit, it’s exciting to get your hands on the latest NFL football game but every single year I am disappointed in the Madden game. It lacks in so many ways. I used to work for EA in San Mateo as a tester for a short time. I met the people who actually test and make these EA games and they are not really sports people. I’m sure they outsource the programming to non sports fans who don’t know a lot about what they are working on. Madden caters to the non football fan, it’s obvious with all their new perks on learning football this year. EA is crap and I don’t know anyone who buys this game and actually keeps it longer than a week.
JJ
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