This week on DSM Fact or Fiction we have a three way duel for mastery of the ForF universe! We have Erik Westfall (aka Ralnakor), Chris Sanner (ummm...aka ChrisS) and Dave (aka Dave) trying to show their pure intellect. Who is the man who wins?  Read on to find out and decide for yourself!

EA will renew the exclusive NFL License within the next year.

ChrisS-  False: I'm actually under the impression we might not see this deal done until January 2009 or so...but I do think it will get done.  At this point, if the NFL thinks it can get enough money out of EA it will go exclusive again.  The big player in this is Take Two's ability to offer enough money for the license that the NFL sees no reason to limit to a one way street.  

I do expect the price to go up significantly for the license though, as I think there might be a competitive bid in this from Take Two.  The big thing you have to remember, is Take Two happy making what they will make off a generic APF?  If so, they can save the money and put the control in the gamers hands in the coming years and probably bank off of it.  I'm not saying EA is getting the license for sure, but they kinda went into the first deal thinking they had it as long as they wanted it due to a lack of rival bidders.

Ralnakor- Fact: Much as I wish we could get our wish here so that Madden has some competition so that they can bring there game up, I haven't heard anything about the NFL disliking what EA has been doing. After all, look at EA's sales numbers...despite complaints from the gaming community, the game is still selling like wildfire and makes it very easy for the NFL to be able to justify keeping the license exclusive.

Dave- Fact: They definitely don't want competition from 2k with such a broken game engine (Madden).

Exclusive Licenses will be seen across the remaining sports in the next 3 years.

ChrisS- Fiction: No and here's why, the NBA and NHL are not going to go exclusive anytime soon.  The NBA has three major games out right now for it and many more arcadeish spinoffs.  The NHL needs as much exposure as necessary and will be clamoring to have as many games with the NHL brand on the shelf as possible.  Therefore I do not think we will see the NHL and NBA go exclusive anytime soon.  

Ralnakor- Fiction: While this completely goes against some of what I said in the last answer, I like to think some sports are actually trying to see this from a gamer's perspective in that competition can produce better gameplay on both sides. I could be way off base here but there are enough mainstream sports left that haven't signed exclusive licensing agreements that I like to think they'll hold out.

Dave- Fiction: NHL and NBA will stay away from exclusive licencing ... I sure hope not at least.

All Pro Football 2k9 will make huge gains sales wise.

ChrisS- Fact: It really depends on who you ask, but I think next year the word might be out a bit more.  I know there are a lot of disappointed Madden gamers who couldn't go more than 3 years into their franchise this year.  If 2kSports can come up with a franchise mode worth gamers time and if they can make customization better so gamers can run with a user created NFL league then I think things might take off.  In all reality..if 2kSports added online franchises and kept things lag free they might have Madden beat anyways in the online department considering you still can't get that many games without running into one with significant lag.  We will see, this one bears watching.

Ralnakor- Fact: While it will likely still not have an NFL license, word has gotten out about how solid a game the All-Pro franchise really is. Admittedly it will still fall short of where it should due largely to the lack of NFL license, the gameplay and word of mouth should be more than enough to increase sales of this game since much of the skepticism that was associated with 2K8 should be gone.

Dave- Fiction: 2k football without real NFL teams and players will continue to sell only to a niche market.

EASports does care about its customers.

ChrisS- Fact: All businesses care about their customers because without them they wouldn't be a business.  However, do they care about a small percentage of consumers?  That one is probably a resounding no in the past.  Peter Moore has stated publicly that he will be changing that and I think he just might.  So with that said...I give EASports the edge here and I bet we see the current trends toward the community get better and better as time goes on.

Ralnakor- Fact: Much as I know I may draw ire from some of our readers for this, I really do think they care about the gamers. Where we lose sight of this is the fact that we forget that we hardcore sports gamers aren't the only ones playing the game. They are adressing what the mainstream sports gamer wants and sometimes, that makes the hardcore folk suffer.

Dave- Fiction: EA cares about its bottom-line, nothing more.

Soccer as a sport is highly underrated in America.

ChrisS- Fiction: It depends on what one would mean when saying this.  In all fairness, Soccer is a very popular sport worldwide and a lot of people enjoy it.  However, people in America do not enjoy watching it (this person included) and it will not catch on anytime soon in my opinion.  It's a slower game of hockey without the physical nature of the game added in.  To all Americans that means one thing...booooring!

Ralnakor- Fiction: I wish I could say in the affirmative here but while soccer is a great sport, it's not a sport that will ever gain mainstream attention in the U.S. because it doesn't follow any number of things that have made the main four (hockey, baseball, football, and basketball) so popular. The speed of the game combined with a number of other factors make it so that this game will likely never catch on in the States.

Dave- Fiction: Ratings don't lie. When soccer is on, people are watching Dancing With The Stars re-runs. Soccer, like 2k football without NFLERS, is a niche in America.