EA Obtains Exclusive Rights to NFL License
In other words for the next five years of your life, the only officially licensed NFL Game you'll be able to buy for your PS2, PS3 or PSP will be Madden NFL 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. How could something like this happen? We'll explain.
Published: December 13, 2004
From this moment on, the only new officially licensed NFL games that you'll be able to buy for not just the PS2, but any console, handheld or computer, for at least the next five years will all have one thing in common: they'll all carry the Eletronic Arts logo.
This announced today in a landmark agreement between EA and the National Football League / Players Inc, in which EA will hold exclusive rights to develop, publish and distribute interactive football games as well as the exclusive rights to the use of NFL teams, stadiums and players, not to mention exclusive rights to all online features as well.
So EA has a monopoly on the NFL videogame market for the next five years?
Yeah, that just about sums it up. And unless the folks over at Sega can pull an NFL license out of their hats (which isn't too likely), then this also spells the end of the ESPN Football franchise, as well as any other new non-EA made NFL licensed football title for the next five years.
However, while these agreements give EA the exclusive rights to any interactive football games that are on a handheld (ie. PSP, Nintendo DS), console or computer, it does not give them exclusive rights over the cell phone market or any other platform that isn't covered by the previously noted agreements, which means that those are still anyones game.
So what does this mean for the future?
That either you'll have to dust off your older non-EA NFL titles if you want to play them, or buy EA's new NFL titles for the next five years. The Madden series has always been at the forefront of the videogaming football world, and are great games, no doubt. It'd just be nice to have have a selection when it comes to which NFL game you buy.
The financial terms of the agreeement were not disclosed.
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Keep checking back as we get more on this breaking news story.
This announced today in a landmark agreement between EA and the National Football League / Players Inc, in which EA will hold exclusive rights to develop, publish and distribute interactive football games as well as the exclusive rights to the use of NFL teams, stadiums and players, not to mention exclusive rights to all online features as well.
So EA has a monopoly on the NFL videogame market for the next five years?
Yeah, that just about sums it up. And unless the folks over at Sega can pull an NFL license out of their hats (which isn't too likely), then this also spells the end of the ESPN Football franchise, as well as any other new non-EA made NFL licensed football title for the next five years.
However, while these agreements give EA the exclusive rights to any interactive football games that are on a handheld (ie. PSP, Nintendo DS), console or computer, it does not give them exclusive rights over the cell phone market or any other platform that isn't covered by the previously noted agreements, which means that those are still anyones game.
So what does this mean for the future?
That either you'll have to dust off your older non-EA NFL titles if you want to play them, or buy EA's new NFL titles for the next five years. The Madden series has always been at the forefront of the videogaming football world, and are great games, no doubt. It'd just be nice to have have a selection when it comes to which NFL game you buy.
The financial terms of the agreeement were not disclosed.
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Keep checking back as we get more on this breaking news story.
