EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by SamuraiX

Reviewers have been calling Madden a good game for years but, that doesn't make it so. Madden 09 was one of the worst football games ever with Ian Cummings coming out and saying nearly every QB in the game threw at speeds faster than Brett Favre but I'll bet you a shiny nickel it still got a bunch of reviews talking about how good it was.

Well I mean of course not, the beauty of opinion is that everyone has their own, thus a Madden NFL discussion board. I can look at the critical consensus on Metacritic to determine what the overarching critical consensus was about a game, however.

Frankly, I thought Madden 09 was the first enjoyable version of Madden on the Gen-7 consoles, but I'm not going to sit here and say it was anything to write home about; it was decent, IMO. I didn't really start enjoying Madden on the 360 until Madden 10 came around, personally.

[SamuraiX]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Based on my limited experience with Madden 2006 which I did not buy on the XBOX 360 - it was a subpar game on account of poor commentary and presentation, 30 frame-per-second refresh rate, lack of depth in game mechanics, blocky-looking players, average gameplay, and lack of depth in gameplay modes, but it was not fundamentally broken and non-functional.

You're choosing to harp on the point of how non-functional Elite was compared to Madden to try and dissuade my point when we all know what I was trying to say. My point being that Madden has been mediocre at best for years now in large part due to the lack of competition in football gaming thus not allowing the possibility for a brand to punish Madden's slow development such as 2k did to the Live series.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by SamuraiX

You're choosing to harp on the point of how non-functional Elite was compared to Madden to try and dissuade my point when we all know what I was trying to say. My point being that Madden has been mediocre at best for years now in large part due to the lack of competition in football gaming thus not allowing the possibility for a brand to punish Madden's slow development such as 2k did to the Live series.

Your original assertion was that Madden has been in the "Live / Elite" range of quality for years. If that's your opinion, fine, you're free to hold that, but the critical consensus of the video game industry and majority of the millions of people who buy Madden year over year - many not present on this website - don't agree with you. People tend to buy games they enjoy playing.

I don't disagree that lack of competition has hurt Madden's growth as a game over time - competition breeds innovation - but that competition isn't coming back anytime soon, so we are where we are.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Based on my limited experience with Madden 2006 which I did not buy on the XBOX 360 - it was a subpar game on account of poor commentary and presentation, 30 frame-per-second refresh rate, lack of depth in game mechanics, blocky-looking players, average gameplay, and lack of depth in gameplay modes, but it was not fundamentally broken and non-functional.

Apparently not the final build but similar to NBA Elite's demo, a short time before Madden 2006's release, EA Tiburon admitted to starring at blank screens, ie not having a playable game but they proceeded to throw something together in time to release in an exclusive market. So if you don't think EA would have done the same thing with NBA Elite, if they had an exclusive NBA license, I again refer you to what they did with Madden 2006.

[PeoplesChampGB]

Heh.......I'll just play another year of Madden 12. And if something happens to my copy I will just buy another. USED of course.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

Apparently not the final build but similar to NBA Elite's demo, a short time before Madden 2006's release, EA Tiburon admitted to starring at blank screens, ie not having a playable game but they proceeded to throw something together in time to release in an exclusive market. So if you don't think EA would have done the same thing with NBA Elite, if they had an exclusive NBA license, I again refer you to what they did with Madden 2006.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything?

The released version of Madden 2006 was not broken, regardless of quality and regardless how tight the window between having a fully stable build and a gold master. NBA Elite was never released after a broken demo. Madden 2006 never saw a demo, much less a broken one. I'm not sure what else there is to say.

Having unstable builds in-dev happens. I've experienced it first hand; particularly under compressed time schedules, things have a way of breaking in new ways at the worst possible times. Making video games is hard. In-dev instability is not something that should be held against a developer so long as whatever is released to the public is stable.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything? The released version of Madden 2006 was not broken, regardless of quality and regardless how tight the window between having a fully stable build and a gold master. NBA Elite was never released after a broken demo. Madden 2006 never saw a demo, much less a broken one. I'm not sure what else there is to say. Having unstable builds in-dev happens. I've experienced it first hand; particularly under compressed time schedules, things have a way of breaking in new ways at the worst possible times. Making video games is hard. In-dev instability is not something that should be held against a developer so long as whatever is released to the public is stable.

I'll state it one more time then leave it at that, Madden 2006 for PS3/360 was an admitted bungling, much like the handling of NBA Elite. Both set out to develop something that they realized wouldn't pan out prior to release but Madden was still able to salvage a releasable game, in an exclusive market, whereas NBA Elite would have been released in a directly competitive market. It begs to reason that if the NBA Elite demo had been released in a scenario where EA had a NBA exclusive license, they would have salvaged what they could for a release, like they did with Madden 2006.

Ergo, a clear example of a moment a poor quality Madden was likely able to avoid a NBA Elite style cancellation due to the exclusive license.

[23]

Quote: Originally Posted by SamuraiX

How is there to be an NBA Elite moment with no competition? Madden has been Live/Elite for years now but since there's no competition there's no one to make them go lay in there dug hole of mediocrity.

I mean the general disgust and protest altogether caused the change not competition itself.

You guys complain a lot but still play the game used or not it was a sold copy you still pay to play. They still collect info from you from the console and as I said until that moment of total boycott comes nothing will change.

Even with down sales there aren't enough people that care about the NBA live series to sell a million copies let alone consistently. One madden hits that low then you'll see stuff shifting to scramble for those sales again.