Madden 25 maybe the last for EA Sports?

[tnixen]

I started thinking the reason why EA Sports may have decided to name the latest Madden "25" is not just because it's the 25th anniversary but also because next year EA may finally drop the Madden name all together and just call it "NFL 15" or maybe even something else. Maybe a new name could also be like a fresh start for EA Sports football?

I mean sooner or later EA will finally remove the Madden name so maybe next year is the time to do it.

What do you guys think about that?

[Senator Palmer]

There are few things more valuable to a corporation than name recognition. You don't give that up willingly. As long as EA has the license, you'll see Madden's name displayed promimently, unless there's some catastrophic PR distaster -- and even then...

[splff3000]

Nope, it will never happen. The Madden name is too big. There are people that literally know nothing about what's "new" in Madden each year, but buy it anyway because it is Madden. The name is waaaay too popular for EA to change it for no reason. Hell, my nephew came to me a few years ago and was like "John Madden is a real person?". He knew Madden as a videogame and nothing else. Now if Madden ever told them to stop using his name or something, then I could see them changing the name, but them changing it for no other reason than a fresh start? Not gonna happen.

[roll2tide]

About 25 years after the real John Madden passes away. Maybe.

[DCEBB2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by roll2tide

About 25 years after the real John Madden passes away. Maybe.

As someone with inside information, I am going to squash this now.

Frank Cooney, who owns The SprotsXchange, NFLDraftScout, and powers my website, FBGRatings.com, is a very close, personal friend of Mr. Madden. He has been on "the bus" several times and the two go way, way back. John actually was never really involved with anything regarding the game. His daughter, in fact, does all of the licensing surrounding his name. Whether the man is around or not (let's hope he still has many years ahead of him) will have no bearing on the use of his name for this video game title. The fact that he has already given the green light to his daughter to license his name at HER discretion means that the game produced by EA will most likely bear his name for as long as EA needs it.

This would fall under the "title recognition" theory as well. The fact of the matter is that John Madden will not even have to be alive among us to still have the video game bear his name and likeness.