From the "craptacular for consumers business moves" department, EA Sports now has exclusive NFL and NFLPA rights with respect to video games. That freakin' sucks balls. ESPN football and Sega's NFLxK series are now relegated to:
-changing their names - no more "NFL" allowed
-changing their teams - see above
-changing stadiums - guess why
-losing all legitimacy
Is EA not content with having two of the ten best selling titles this year (Madden '05 and the '05 Collector's Edition)? Does the NFL really think it's better for the league if kids can only see their players on the most difficult, realistic, and expensive title available? Madden is intended for grown-ups that want to simulate real football. The others try to put out good football games, and Take Two (ESPN branded) was able to do it for about a third of the cost of the EA product.
This is like Google making itself available only thorugh IE...sucks for everybody but the entity receiving the check. I feel for the poor kids who's family can't spend $65 on a video game, who now have to play the Baltimore Blackbirds against the Washington Indigenous Peoples (at historic T & M Bank Field) with star players Ron Louis and Clint Sorpist. Gaaaaaaaaaaay.
Posted by Chris at December 14, 2004 12:20 AMLet's go picket the head NFLPA offices:
Headquarters
2021 L Street, N.W.
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Hopefully the new games will allow you to rename teams and players, but yeah, it won't be the same, or it'll involve a lot of editing. The PS3 and the XBox 2 will most likely allow you to import all the NFL data after you purchase the nonbranded game (similar to collge games now), but that's a while away. The big thing I see is that EA has no reason to innovate and add significant features to their games. The technology is already here to allow Madden to alter the stats and rosters real-time (so if Fred Smoot is injured on Sunday, he'll no longer be availabe to play on your PS2 on Monday), or to have move online features available, but with no real competition, you probably won't see this happen.
Posted by: Rick at December 14, 2004 09:32 AMThis year there were only 2 titles available with real NFL players and teams: Madden and ESPN 2K5. Who here plays 2K5? Who here knows anyone that has played 10 franchise years of 2K5? I owned 2K5, played it one time, liked it, and gave it away to my nephew. While it was a great game, people are just comfortable with the Madden series....
I just hope EA doesn't get lazy on the madden franchise and sit on their hands...there's always room for improvement.
Posted by: Nate at December 14, 2004 09:49 AMGood points there Rick, but what is the motivation for consumers to buy Madden 2006 if they change nothing? Just to get the new rosters? That's pretty easy to adjust in these games. I imagine EA will continue to innovate their games, but the clip at which they do it will be much slower. They still need the sales revenue of new games, and if you don't change anythying - nobody wins.
Posted by: Pat at December 14, 2004 09:51 AMYeah, I think EA will add enough features to make it worthwile to upgrade. At the very least, the graphics and gameplay will improve incrementally. I'm just thinking that without real competition, a whole slew of good ideas that could come of the whole internet thing might not get realized.* I remember one review of EA 200-whatever mentioning that you could now see arm hair on the players. While that comment serves to show how good the graphics were, it just seems like there should be more things to focus on when an new game comes out. But then again, we are talking about sports games, which have become pretty standardized in the last few years (this is a compliment - they've gotten so much right I guess they can now focus on the small things).
* Like having a group of friends all play against each other - each friend picks a team, and then you play the NFL schedule against the computer or your friend (depending on the team). You could even do a fantasy draft on your NFL season, rather than the real one. Shit like that.
Posted by: Rick at December 14, 2004 10:52 AMIn the ongoing effort to drive away all but 4 patrons of this website:
Along with Madden, EA Sports makes NFL Street, which may be more appealing to kids, though wholly unrealistic. Perhaps they can make a game that is somewhere in between the two. However, if you buy the Madden Collector's Edition game, you can play Playstation 1 versions and a version from a 16 bit system. More importantly, what is the video game industry doing to appease Roy, and his desire to have a football game with only two buttons?
"Like having a group of friends all play against each other - each friend picks a team, and then you play the NFL schedule against the computer or your friend (depending on the team). You could even do a fantasy draft on your NFL season, rather than the real one. Shit like that."
I'm not sure if that's an enhancement you'd like to see, or one you're already impressed with, but you can do that. You can create leagues for like 20 bucks and have up to 32 friends play via PS2 on-line. You have to play your game each week, and in the case of playing against a friend you have to (of course) be on-line at the same time. And you can do it fantasy draft mode, etc....it rocks...
*nerd*
Posted by: Nate at December 14, 2004 04:02 PMThe league thing sounds cool, though I doubt that we are collectively organized enough to do it.
Posted by: John at December 14, 2004 04:34 PMI dunno, I think those of us that stick to FF could pull off a league...besides it will either simulate your game if your opponent can't make it, or you can make them be a computer opponent if they don't get there by a time specified by your league settings...
Posted by: Nate at December 14, 2004 04:41 PM