The EA / NFL deal expires after Madden NFL 2010 releases. The five year deal was from 2005 - 2009. The earliest we would ever see an NFL 2K game would be in 2010 which would be 2K11.
EA overpaid for the exclusive license but they feared VC and 2K because they knew that eventually, the 2K series would crush Madden in sales, profits and market share. EA didnt want to have a repeat of what happened during the PSone days when NFL GameDay 96, 97 and 98 outshined Madden. EA also purchased the NCAA and AFL licenses mainly because they knew that both were the second and third options for VC after EA purchased the NFL license.
EA doesnt care about the quality of their games and it's been like that for a very long time. Even before the EA / NFL deal was announced. EA buying out the NFL license allowed them to be even more lazy in terms of actually upgrading Madden.
There was NEVER an actual auction or bidding for the NFL / NFLPA licenses. It was all planned once 2K5 early release and $20 price tag was announced. 989 studios (who had been developing NFL GameDay for the last two years or so) didnt even know about the EA / NFL deal until several days after it happened. Microsoft wasnt aware of the EA / NFL deal either. There were rumors that Microsoft wanted to bring back their NFL Fever franchise for Xbox 360. Seriously, there was NEVER any auction whatsoever. If there was an actual auction, everyone knows that Microsoft would have outbid EA easily. And what better way to sell 360's than to have the most popular sport in the damn world be exclusive to your own system? EA is a 3rd party company which means that if you own a 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox or a GC, you have the option of buying Madden. If the NFL was exclusive to just Microsoft, you would have no other option but to buy a 360 in order to get your yearly NFL fix. That would have pissed off a lot of people but in the end, that would have been HUGE for Microsoft, especially after Gears of War was released.
The NFL was pissed off with 2K5 selling at $20. Several people who work for the NFL bashed 2K for selling 2K5 for only $20, saying that it cheapened their (NFL) license. You knew from that idiotic and moronic statement that the licenses were going to EA no matter what. NFL never said anything about going "exclusive" until after 2K5 was released. EA even offered to buyout the exclusive license years earlier but the NFL declined.
The sad part is that 2K4 was outsold 15-1 and 2K3 was outsold 12-1. 2K5 was outsold 5-1 or so. Obviously, the $20 price tag and early release had a huge part to do with that but if im the NFL, I would rather have a $20 game sell over a million copies as opposed to a $50 game sell only a few hundred thousand copies. At least, that's the way I look at it. After all, if 2K3 and especially 2K4 didnt cheapen the NFL license by their horrible sales figures, what the hell would?
NFL shouldnt have made those comments even if it's how they felt because it's bad
PR. It shows that all NFL cares about is money, which is sad especially when you have people put their careers and lives on the line to make their employer all that money. Not to mention the fact that the NFL / NFLPA licenses were already paid for in full for that season.
Eventually, the NFL will realize that the quality of the Madden series is crap. Seriously, going back to the old school days of Tecmo and Montana, the alternatives have always been superior to Madden. The only aspect that Madden won in the end was that the management stuff for Franchise mode was awesome but when the gameplay sucks, it doesnt really matter in the end because the main objective is to play the actual game on the field.
My prediction two and a half years ago was that after Madden NFL 2008, the NFL would void out the remaining two years of the deal because of bad reviews, ratings and general opinions of Madden over the last three years in which EA had the exclusive licenses. Madden has received lower ratings and good (as opposed to great) reviews the last two years because without any competition, the reviewers can be more open, honest and truthful because they dont have to fear their bosses since EA wouldnt threaten to pull their advertising money.
My current prediction remains the same but with one difference. I believe that after the summer is over, the NFL will realize that APF was a better overall product than what EA offered with Madden and by the end of the year, Roger Goodell will void out the remaining two years of the contract and allow all companies to "rent" out the licenses on a yearly basis like before.
Madden NFL 2008 will basically be the same as last year (and the year before that) and without EA using the ESPN license whatsoever (for the third straight year), the NFL will see that the Madden franchise is old, obsolete and far past it's prime (just like Brett Favre). The NFL will see that VC did more with APF 2K8 than what EA did with the NFL licenses. In the end, that's what will make the NFL void out the remaining two years of the exclusive deal. Of course, APF 2K8's sales will also play a role in this but considering that Blitz: League sold over a million copies, I fully expect APF 2K8 to surpass that.
Of course, this all remains to be seen but that's my prediction.
05-02-2007, 12:36 PM
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