Colin Kaepernick Will Be the Only Player in Madden NFL 15 with Tattoos

[Steve_OS]

Polygon's Samit Sarkar interviewed Seann Graddy, line producer of Madden NFL 15 and asked him why tattoos are making their way back to the Madden series and what was the reason for their disappearance.

Many people figured it was a licensing agreement with EA and the NFL, but that is not the case. According to Seann, it comes down to copyright infringement. The player needs to secure permission from the artist first, which Kaepernick did, before EA can even begin to implement the tattoos into the game.

Quote:

For now, Kaepernick is the only player who will appear in Madden 15 with his authentic tattoos, because he's the only one who has obtained the permissions from the artists involved. "We want to do this with every player, frankly, and we're hopeful that more players over time actually go out and secure the rights so that we can use their tattoos as well," said Graddy.

If another players wants his tattoos in the game, they need to go through the same process as Kaepernick. Since the game is almost complete, the odds of getting anyone else in the game with authentic tattoos is slim. We'll most likely see more players with tattoos in Madden NFL 16.

[Chemthethriller]

EA is terrified of being sued.

[JKSportsGamer1984]

They might as well leave tattoos out then. That's super lame if only Kaepernick has them. It'll stand out as even more awkward than not having tatts in the game at all. Doesn't make sense to me. Either all or nothing EA.

[SmashMan]

If you follow the link in this article to Polygon's Ricky Williams' NFL Street cover article, you find a story about a tattoo artist suing THQ for reproducing a tattoo in UFC 3.

http://www.polygon.com/2012/11/17/36...c-undisputed-3

Only mentioning as a heads-up because this goes along with some of the talk in the other thread.

[djordan]

Typical EA... Why half *** it?

Either have every player with tats in the game or not... It's that simple.

I just don't get it.....

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by djordan

Typical EA... Why half *** it? Either have every player with tats in the game or not... It's that simple. I just don't get it.....

It's not EA, it's the NFLPA that mandated the waiver collection from the tattoo artist.

An artist sued Ricky Williams and the NFL based on the NFL Street game with Ricky on the cover and sued because the artist tattoo was on the front cover.

NFLPA came down after this and said to the players, you need a waiver form from now on to reproduce your tattoos.

Cap went out and got the waiver signed by both of his tattoo artist.

[SageInfinite]

Can't say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not putting it all on EA/Tiburon. I'm sure there's more they could've done, but oh well. Like I said in the other thread though, EA knew what they were doing releasing this screenshot first. They wanted this to be a big deal.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

Can't say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not putting it all on EA/Tiburon. I'm sure there's more they could've done, but oh well. Like I said in the other thread though, EA knew what they were doing releasing this screenshot first. They wanted this to be a big deal.

The timing was huge with Kap's big signing announcement yesterday.

Here is the whole story.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/5/5782...lin-kaepernick