EA gets exclusive rights contract with NFL

Ryno

The evil empire has struck again!

http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media/1103050448.html

No one else can make NFL football games for the next 5 years. Madden will be the only franchise. Sega will be squashed, and may go out of business. Thanks EA! Way to help out the game industry, NFL!

skankerzero

wow, makes me wonder if there's going to be some kind of lawsuit dealing with a monopoly. Similar to the one taken up against Microsoft over IE.

e_x

Well since EA already has the exclusives on the PGA Tour and NASCAR, not sure what can be done.

I'm a huge Madden fan, but I'm not going to be buying Madden for five years because of this. Its just wrong.

MoP

What if a different company makes, say, a beat 'em up or FPS game involving players from the NFL? Will EA be able to put a stop to them? Or is it only for the "sports game" style thing?

Ryno

I will need to confirm, but I believe that it's with the NFL and the players' union. This means that no players could be used in any way if they are portrayed as having anything to do with football. So sure, you could put Peyton Manning in a martial arts game, but not in any type of football type game.

skankerzero

what sucks is why innovate if you have no competition?

I guess we can expect even more of the same for the next 5 years.

And at such a critical point in time too. Just as companies are getting their next gen engines ready. After 5 years, if the license is no longer exclusive, other companies will be left way behind.

Soul_Reaper

The people this hurts are EA's competition and consumers.
I would really like to see EA officially reigned in by someone here. I'm surprised exclusitivity deals like this are legal, I thought there was a bunch of anti-competitive laws?

This is a great example of un-competitive practice.

Daz

Football bores me to tears.

Personally I think that players inc. and the NFL are to blame more than EA for allowing this to happen. Any other publisher would have fricking jumped at the chance to seal this deal and 'get one over' EA, and anyone who thinks otherwise is hopelessly naiive about why games publishers are in the business.

Please note that I have not made a statement that either supports nor condemns the deal.

thnom

There are ways around it. Sega could go out of their way and name every player a last name from the NFL onto a player in the game. So say a 'Manning' as a RB on Baltimore. This would give them access to the 'Manning' on commentary on the game. Now, with the technology available, when people edit the teams it would say 'Manning' on Peyton.

This is in Madden now - you make a player called Timmy Manning and it will say madden in game. EA can't do anything because you aren't protraying Peyton ingame, and you can't sue for an american name. If they did, they could license Tim Manning off the street

The only thing they can't really get around is Team logos. Team commentary they can. They can pre-record team extentions such as 'The Lions' and 'The Wildcats' (with all the nfl last bits). Keep each team as 'Tennessee' and 'Baltimore' and the NFL can't touch them (It's a city name). Now if they leave the teams editable, they can let players change it so Baltimore Ravens, and have the commentary say 'Baltimore' or The Ravens.

-thnom

It can be done - look at Pro Evolution 3.


PS: I'm glad EA got it rather than SEGA because EA actually support the PC. Sega do not.

PPS: ESPN will probably release a title to see how it sells and people will probably buy it to spite EA.

Ryno

Here's a more thorough article on the topic:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=5928

adam

I'm curious though, 'cause as it stands I thought most companies making sport games only used licenses from the Players Association of each sport league? I haven't played a sports game since I was little so I'm not up-to-date with whats what in the sport game world.