In a move that just screams monopoly, Electronic Arts has secured exclusive rights to NFL properties and players for the next 5 years. That basically means that every other football video game that used NFL players and stadiums is out of luck and essentially out of business. This all happens just as we were seeing the competition between Madden and ESPN really heat up, even leading to consumer friendly price drops!
In the end this cannot be good news for the consumer. Without competition, there’s nothing to stop EA from keeping prices high. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Madden hit $60/copy on the next generation of consoles. Now $60 for a game is not automatically out of the question if the game rates it. But given recent news about the way EA treats its employees, there is little reason to believe that there are going to be innovations that merit the higher price tag. I remember back in the early Playstation days that EA actually cancelled Madden 96 because the quality of the game wasn’t up to snuff compared to Sony’s NFL Gameday. That was during a time of intense competition before EA had secured a virtual lock on NFL football games. In the absence of real competition, I wonder if they would have cancelled?
Now in all fairness, EA also has an exclusive deal with NASCAR, which as an old Papyrus NASCAR Racing fan, did not sit too well with me. But so far EA has continued to make improvements each year. So perhaps the same will hold true for Madden as well. On the whole, game developers are a passionate lot and will do great things if the suits will just stay out of the way.