EA Obtains Exclusive NFL Licensing Rights

Grub writes "EA has signed a 5-year agreement with the NFL that gives them exclusive rights to use NFL players, teams, and stadiums in their products. CEO Larry Probst, 'The five-year agreement will usher NFL fans through the console technology transition with new ideas and innovative game play experiences.' This is a crushing blow to competitors and an enormous victory for EA, who will undoubtably make sure everyone knows that only they have NFL players and teams come next year's football game advertising bonanza."

Comments

Re:Lovely.

[Necrobruiser]

As if EA wasn't enough of an evil, soul-sucking monstrosity.

Can we save some time and just repost all of the "M$ is Evil" posts from the last 5 years and just replace Microsoft with EA in each? It really doesn't take much to bring out the knee-jerk reactions here on /. does it?

Re:Madden 64...

[D'Arque Bishop]

I wonder if Sega (NFL2k) or Midway(NFLBlitz!) will be able to pull the same

It wouldn't be the first time Midway pulled off a football game without an NFL license. Back in 1990 or thereabouts (I forget the exact year), they released an arcade game called High Impact Football which used nonexistent teams. Apparently it did well enough to rate a sequel called Super High Impact Football. (Now, if they'd just include either in Midway Arcade Treasures 3...)

Just my $.02...

Recollections of my past

[FunWithHeadlines]

Back in the 80s I taught myself a new programming language by creating a football game. This was still in the DOS era, so it was very simple graphics of a football field and a football icon that moved forward or back depending on the outcome of the play. It had a scoreboard, running clock, the usual stuff. It was just for fun. But guys at work (where I was doing this -- hey, remember, I was learning a new language for work's sake) saw my program and wanted to play it. So I let them.

I had no intention of sharing it beyond that, but something about using actual NFL teams made me wonder about licensing rights. So I wrote to the NFL and asked them if I wanted to create a private, not-for-profit, not to be spread around game, could I use actual NFL team names? I figured it was a silly question, for why would they object. Probably you are thinking I was an idiot for writing under the universal principle of it's better to be ask forgiveness than to ask permission. Well, I was, but there you are. Anyway, I got a nice letter from NFL headquarters saying, "Thank you for asking, but no, you may not use actual NFL team names since we have entered into exclusive licensing arrangements with game companies." I have no idea which game company (probably early Atari stuff or some nonsense), but the idea of exclusive licensing of NFL names is hardly new. They've been raking in free money on that concept for at least twenty years now.

And no, I didn't change my program. Oh, I tried to make up names like the Comets and the Tigers, but it sounded too hokey, so I left in the real names anyway. NFL lawyers, you may arrest me now.

This is just an opportunity

[Vaystrem]

Sega and other football game makers have a unique opportunity at this time to make really amazing College Football Games. There have been a few on the market but they don't generally have the features or support that the NFL games do.

There is a large playerbase that is actively followed. Gamers will still go where the best game implementation is.

Can you imagine how rich the online play would be with leagues composed of every college team would be? It would be fantastic!

Even if they don't go with colleges they could setup entire virtual leagues. Track stats of a 'fake' league online have a team for every state so that you can have large online leagues. Have web based fantasy games setup for when your at work. It could work and be compelling.

They could even stream nightly gaming updates to your xbox (ala machinma) using the ingame engine.

Maybe people will continue to buy EA's games but if Sega does it right, most football gamers will end up buying both, and perhaps spend more time theirs.

Solution for competitors

[schnitzi]

Competitors should design their products to accept any properly formatted database file of players and stats.

This would allow you to enter in your child's own Pop Warner teams to play against each other.

Of course, there's always a chance that some naughty person might start spreading around a database listing all the real NFL players.

That would certainly be tragic. But it's a risk we might have to take.

Re:Damn

[iocat]

It get's worse: Have you seen Sportsdot?

Anyway this is more a videogame monopoly story than a strict sports story...

Re:It's about time

[Ubergrendle]

Actually, this is a good opportunity to discuss what EA does once they corner a market. From about 1991 - 1997 EA NHL was ~THE~ sports franchise for any platform. High intensity action, good graphics, and marked improvement in gameplay year after year.

However, once EA finished dominating this sport, it branched out into others, gradually trying to recreate the success of the NHL games. As EA diverted its focus, this meant that the franchise began a gradual decline...alot of gimmicks were added in to justify new versions from year to year. PC Gamer discusses the decline of EA NHL in this month's issue.

I'd argue "Success" = "jumped the shark" for EA Sports games. There's no reason to believe that NFL Football under EA will not be the same. EA got the rights to the NFL based on the solid 2005 offering of Madden, and will probably futher improve the game for the first year or two in the deal. But I guarantee that the 2009/2010 Madden will be derivative garbage, EA maximising profits before the license comes due.