Madden NFL 15 News Post

EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively

11:32 AM - June 13, 2014 by RaychelSnr

While there has some some question as to the status of the exclusivity of the Madden license, owing to the fact the last mention of the license by EA only said there were a number of years left on it with no mention of exclusivity. That was never a guarantee that the license wasn't exclusive, as EA hadn't mentioned in official documents that the license was either extended or exclusive since the initial deal -- the news of the prior extension was never fully confirmed by EA.

Expecting a different approach where EA held a pomp and circumstance parade has led to a rash of unfounded rumors that another competitor, namely 2K, was developing a football game. There was even an unfounded expectation that 2K might even debut a football title at E3.

However, the biggest news to come out of the 2K camp at E3 might have been Ronnie2K confirming that not only was 2K not working on a football game, but that the license was still exclusively owned by 'someone else.'

This isn't surprising, considering the NFL license being open for other partners would have almost certainly leaked by now by someone. The current deal's term length which has been widely speculated and rumored is that Madden still has two to three years in its current deal, pushing the game well into this new generation.

It still remains unlikely, even if the license was open, that a competitor could rise up to compete with Madden in any reasonable amount of time given the more advanced needs of today's sports gaming audience. Thus, given the license's current status, it is possible that any possible competitor wouldn't be ready for release for at least 18-24 months after the license was actually acquired by someone, which puts the most reasonable timeframe for a Madden competitor at least four to five years from now, if ever. The most likely scenario remains that EA and Madden will remain the only major NFL gaming option on big box consoles for the foreseeable future.

Game: Madden NFL 15Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 42 - View All

Madden NFL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 141 spankdatazz22 @ 06/14/14 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamgramps


	It appears to me that 2k created this situation with their tactics of price slashing. This was an attempt to be cute and take the market share from EA and it back fired. Madden may not be the game a lot of us want, but 2k is to blame. EA fired back and gave 2k some of their own medicine. If 2k would have never opened that door and threatened the NFL brand, MAYBE an exclusive deal would not have come into play.

lol so out of curiosity... should 2K have just "stayed in their place"? The notion that the 2K did it to themselves by price slashing is a falsehood created on the boards imo. None of us will ever know for sure, but really - if Macys buys x-number of Coach bags from Coach and decides to sell them at whatever price, what does Coach care? If Gamestop decides to sell Call of Duty at $19.99 and take a loss, does Activision really care long as Gamestop is paying whatever it is they pay up front for the title? It was EA that didn't want their prices being dictated by a competitor, not the licensor itself. NFL2K5 wasn't the only $19.99 priced game that year. And for every title EA was in direct competition with 2K, it lowered the price of it's games. Other sports games where there was no competition stayed the same price. So they acted the next year to eliminate sports game competition.

It trips me out how people will say MLB was mad at 2K for the quality of MLB2K. But did the NBA care about the quality of NBA Live during the Jesus Bynum situation? Did it care so much about Sony's NBA game? Did the NHL care about 2K's hockey game when it was an inferior product to EA's? These stories get created in the forums and the narrative is molded to fit whatever argument until they're repeated so much, they become accepted. If the NFL licenses it's shield to some toy maker to make a stuffed doll, I seriously doubt they dictate the price. They care it's product isn't being misrepresented, such as some over the top gory Blitz game based on the NFL property.

If you go by the logic that the NFL is that involved, then technically they should be disappointed because Madden no longer has the market share nor the clout/reputation it had during the PS2 years. It's all a moot point as the situation is what it is. It's just interesting to discuss. But I always find it surprising how some things got taken as fact over the past 10 years since the wave of those exclusivity agreements came down. Again, I don't see how anyone could argue that it's was "just a coincidence" each property decided to go exclusive all at once. With EA being the only company at the time in good enough financial standing to sign such exorbiant deals.

# 142 Scribe1980 @ 06/14/14 02:00 PM

Madden is dead to me.

# 143 iamgramps @ 06/14/14 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdatazz22


	lol so out of curiosity... should 2K have just "stayed in their place"? The notion that the 2K did it to themselves by price slashing is a falsehood created on the boards imo. None of us will ever know for sure, but really - if Macys buys x-number of Coach bags from Coach and decides to sell them at whatever price, what does Coach care? If Gamestop decides to sell Call of Duty at $19.99 and take a loss, does Activision really care long as Gamestop is paying whatever it is they pay up front for the title? It was EA that didn't want their prices being dictated by a competitor, not the licensor itself. NFL2K5 wasn't the only $19.99 priced game that year. And for every title EA was in direct competition with 2K, it lowered the price of it's games. Other sports games where there was no competition stayed the same price. So they acted the next year to eliminate sports game competition. It trips me out how people will say MLB was mad at 2K for the quality of MLB2K. But did the NBA care about the quality of NBA Live during the Jesus Bynum situation? Did it care so much about Sony's NBA game? Did the NHL care about 2K's hockey game when it was an inferior product to EA's? These stories get created in the forums and the narrative is molded to fit whatever argument until they're repeated so much, they become accepted. If the NFL licenses it's shield to some toy maker to make a stuffed doll, I seriously doubt they dictate the price. They care it's product isn't being misrepresented, such as some over the top gory Blitz game based on the NFL property. If you go by the logic that the NFL is that involved, then technically they should be disappointed because Madden no longer has the market share nor the clout/reputation it had during the PS2 years. It's all a moot point as the situation is what it is. It's just interesting to discuss. But I always find it surprising how some things got taken as fact over the past 10 years since the wave of those exclusivity agreements came down. Again, I don't see how anyone could argue that it's was "just a coincidence" each property decided to go exclusive all at once. With EA being the only company at the time in good enough financial standing to sign such exorbiant deals.

This is strictly my opinion. For all I know, I can be completely off base; however, I do believe the NFL had its hand in the exclusive deal.

# 144 The_Balm @ 06/14/14 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GiantBlue76


	Right on Spank. This is the thing that really irritates me the most. Most reasonable minds do not care that EA has an exclusive deal with the NFL. What they DO care about is that EA has an exclusive deal AND they put out an inferior product. Just think about it for a second. Here we are 10 years later after the exclusive deal, we have gone through 2 (not 1, but 2!) console generations and we still are asking for things we had 10 years ago. Don't you guys find it alarming that we have not only failed to advance football gaming at all, but it has actually gone BACKWARDS! Madden looks improved, but in reality, all of this is only because people have been worn down from lowering the bar consistently over the last 10 years. I can't stand to watch those APF videos, because it makes me go home and put the game in, only to get depressed again, lol. Then I look at Madden and I see major issues with player movement, line interaction, etc. etc. Not to mention things that are flat out MISSING - like penalties, challenge system that actually is legit, ball physics, etc. 2k did a TON more with much less, and everyone knows it, including EA. This game coming out should have ALL of those things in it. But like I said in another post, when nothing pushes you, it's all too easy to say, eh, it can wait until next year. Does anyone remember the online leagues in 2004? 2k announced online leagues with full website support for 2k5. This completely caught EA with their pants down. They did not support this in Madden. MAGICALLY - shortly after 2k launched their leagues, EA found the time, talent and energy to implement them as well using some sponsorship from Dodge or Chrysler. Imagine that... Once again, Tiburon needs their hand held to accomplish anything. They are not a good developer. They do not think of things on their own, they completely incapable of modeling their product off of the NFL (always inventing their own presentation) and every year the same things have to be re-written. Basically, like AJ Dembroski said in his twitter rant, we get lied to. Every year we listen to how this and that has been completely re-written so that it works now, only to be told the following year that this and that didn't work. WTF? You guys realize that zone coverage has been re-written supposedly every year since Madden 12. How many times do you have to rewrite the zone coverage to get it right? Tweaks, bug fixes and general enhancements absolutely yes. COmplete re-writes? This tells me what I already knew about the programmers writing the code. They struggle and, quite frankly, I firmly believe a lot of the stuff that's missing doesn't get done because they don't know how to do it. In past football games we got a complete game, without those things being touted on the back of the box. They were just assumed because you can't have a football game without the actual football stuff in it, right? Presentation has been re-done every single year, and it STILL isn't right. JUST COPY WHAT IS IN REAL LIFE!!! HOW HARD IS IT TO UNDERSTAND THAT???? NHL is doing it, FIFA has multiple broadcast teams, this is not rocket science. How are you supposed to advance your game significantly if you keep re-doing the same crap every year?

I agree. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Madden needs a full, from the ground up rewrite! The long term problems just keep piling on and we keep hearing about how Madden is a huge intertwining code base with lots of old code that can be hard to work with and can cause domino effects.

By no means am I saying it would be easy, it would be a humongous task taking multiple years. I might not need to be 100% rewritten, but definitely starting from a clean slate and pulling any assets and bits that are of top-notch quality (draft logic or something like that).

Yes, last transition they completely blew it, but you can't keep using the same foundation from the transition when you blew it! You have to do it right sometime and work off of that.

The smart move would've been to have a team working on this for the past three or so years and to unveil it for M15 or M16, but I don't see that happening.

# 145 BigDaddyHolmes @ 06/14/14 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdatazz22


	Anytime I see people say "but Madden's getting better!"... it's supposed to get better. The question is where should it be. I have to post this: Look at the interaction. Look at how organic the player movement and interaction is. Look at the sideline interaction. Listen to the play-by-play. Go to the 5:16mark and look at the replay presentation. Then understand, this isn't where Madden is (imo) even now - nor where it should be, which is 7yrs and a next gen console generation beyond this. This isn't even a licensed game, nor was it a fully 2K-efforted endeavor. That's why some people get bitter. And it's made to be worse when you have a the guy in charge of Madden puffing his chest out like they've accomplished something, and making hollow challenges.

Wow. That looks real most of the time. Imagine this with updated graphics and a NFL license alone. Now imagine the gameplay improvements they would have had by now.

Unreal.

# 146 spankdatazz22 @ 06/14/14 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamgramps


	This is strictly my opinion. For all I know, I can be completely off base; however, I do believe the NFL had its hand in the exclusive deal.

np you have a right to think if you want. Just sounds funny to me. A hypothetical would be if 2K or EA paid the NFL $10 billion dollars for the exclusive NFL license, then decided to give the games away for free. Some act like the NFL would say "Wait a minute - no deal! You have to sell each game at $59.99. Oh, and we tell you what an appropriate sale price is"

"And when to have a sale"

# 147 J_Posse @ 06/14/14 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpectralThundr


	2k could "Bring it" with NHL, or MLB, or any other sport. Yet they haven't, all their eggs are in one basket with their NBA game, their "Sports line" is one game.

Ummm, isn't that true of SCE San Diego (formerly 989 Studios) which has dropped out of basketball and hockey, but stuck with the one title they do best?

Anyway, this is terrible but expected news. Sports gaming is dying a slow death, IMO, and most of the blame can be pointed at this exclusive deal.

# 148 ThaPhenom21 @ 06/14/14 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elgreazy1


	I honestly think he was tired of hearing about 2K and got caught up in the moment. How would you all feel if you put immense time, effort and energy into something only to have an audience of naysayers keep saying your work isn't good enough?

doesn't look like much "effort" has been put into the game for 6 years.

# 149 Robo COP @ 06/14/14 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SageInfinite


	I would do everything in my power to make sure we had the superior product. My money would go into my product not into ensuring a license so the quality of my product suffers as well as my old and new costumers. I'd make my consumers forget the competition through quality, not licensing. If I did somehow eliminate competition through licensing, I damn sure wouldn't have people clamoring for competition back every chance they got because my product was subpar/mediocre. Everybody doesn't think like that man.

And that is exactly why you don't own a business, man.

Guess what? Even though people are clamoring for competition to return, EA is STILL making more money than they ever did when they had that competition. Why would they care? Why would they want that competition back if they are making more money?

You can say you would do this or that all you want, even if you would if you were in that position...that would make you the worst businessman ever and you would be fired or tank your entire business because of the way you are thinking.

The only reason you are thinking the way you are right now is because that is what you want as a consumer. But you wouldn't want to do that as a businessman. Hence why I said what I said.

You can argue it till the cows come home but you're just dead wrong. Anyone in their right mind would have done exactly what EA did.

Oh and let us not forget that THE NFL WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SHOPPING THEIR EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS AROUND. EA didn't just say hey, let us buy the rights to get rid of the competition. The NFL MADE THIS HAPPEN!

So again I say, stop trying to villainize EA in a situation where they made the only logical choice presented to them. A choice everyone in the same position would have made. Hate them for making a terrible game, sure (I do). But learn a little bit about the situation before jumping to the conclusions that you all are jumping to

# 150 SageInfinite @ 06/14/14 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robo COP


	And that is exactly why you don't own a business, man. Guess what? Even though people are clamoring for competition to return, EA is STILL making more money than they ever did when they had that competition. Why would they care? Why would they want that competition back if they are making more money? You can say you would do this or that all you want, even if you would if you were in that position...that would make you the worst businessman ever and you would be fired or tank your entire business because of the way you are thinking. The only reason you are thinking the way you are right now is because that is what you want as a consumer. But you wouldn't want to do that as a businessman. Hence why I said what I said. You can argue it till the cows come home but you're just dead wrong. Anyone in their right mind would have done exactly what EA did. Oh and let us not forget that THE NFL WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SHOPPING THEIR EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS AROUND. EA didn't just say hey, let us buy the rights to get rid of the competition. The NFL MADE THIS HAPPEN! So again I say, stop trying to villainize EA in a situation where they made the only logical choice presented to them. A choice everyone in the same position would have made. Hate them for making a terrible game, sure (I do). But learn a little bit about the situation before jumping to the conclusions that you all are jumping to

Lol. First off you don't know what I do outside of this site my man. Secondly you are entitled to your opinion, I'll leave it at that.

# 151 JaymeeAwesome @ 06/14/14 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SageInfinite


	Lol. First off you don't know what I do outside of this site my man. Secondly you are entitled to your opinion, I'll leave it at that.

We do not know what you do, but by your remarks it doesn't sound like you own a business that employs hundreds of employees or else you would understand where we are coming from.

On a side note, the NFLs #1 priority is a strong brand name. EAs #1 is the bottom line. Neither of these parties have gameplay as a top priority. Sure, we as consumers suffer, but once people accept the fact that we are not top priority then you give yourself the chance to actually enjoy anything you invest money in.

This journey that brought us to M15 started with the vision on M13. Stop comparing it to games of the past or other sports games. It's a waste of time. Do your research, play the game before you buy, and make a decision. Your life will be easier by not looking for faults.

# 152 darknmild @ 06/14/14 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike24forever


	I completely agree with this. People have been holding out hope for a 2K games since APF 2K8, unfortunately it's not happening. It's time to let it go. Buy Madden or don't...those are the option for the foreseeable future for video football games.

I agree 100%. Let it go. I was not a NBA2K fan. But when NBA Live crumbled I wanted a basketball game so I bought 2k. Never went to their forums and blasted them for buying Michael Jordan's likeness exclusively. Took for what it was. Hopefully Live 15 is good so I can go back to playing Live.

# 153 Jermaine76 @ 06/14/14 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BizDevConglomerate


	Watching this vid just is disappointing. All 2k had to do was upgrade this game. They must not care about modding so you can add real payers and teams. This game looks so fluid I thought it was a real game till it got up close. I can't get with those controls. Or the graphics. But put an updated version of that out and I'm sure people would but. They just have to market it correctly. Tell everyone how to make it real. May sell it only as a DLC and release a demo. Is easier advertising on the console. Your she to see it in the Today menu on the PS. This is depressing loll. The running, blocking, catch animations etc. Put that out today with all of the controls we have, man listen. The only people to blame is 2k an us. We how demand then to fee make this man whose about to pay a game from 7 years so. This also shows that a game should be able to last forever. Greed killed games. 2k killed them stores by not being greedy. I don't understand why someone hasn't gone to 2k and said do a kick starter, we raid the money they need to make amature football and basketball, AND Pro football games. Then we go from there. Even they pry that over the first year make some upgrades to where they can you got a great game. We just have to be able to add teams and logos. Like backbreaker. Full post session mode, enough team does to mimic the real thing. They just make the shell leave the rest to us. That would be perfect in my opinion. I'm gonna start a hash tag on 2k twitter. #bringbackfootballwithusandkickstarter Let's flood em. At least put out the sorry and so crying like girls. Lol Lombardi

We've been using the Hex Editor and the All-Pro Editor to keep APF2K8 alive.

# 154 HingleMcCringleberry @ 06/14/14 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaymeeAwesome


	We do not know what you do, but by your remarks it doesn't sound like you own a business that employs hundreds of employees or else you would understand where we are coming from. On a side note, the NFLs #1 priority is a strong brand name. EAs #1 is the bottom line. Neither of these parties have gameplay as a top priority. Sure, we as consumers suffer, but once people accept the fact that we are not top priority then you give yourself the chance to actually enjoy anything you invest money in. This journey that brought us to M15 started with the vision on M13. Stop comparing it to games of the past or other sports games. It's a waste of time. Do your research, play the game before you buy, and make a decision. Your life will be easier by not looking for faults.

^ The fact that a game made here in 2014, yes 2014, is constantly critiqued against a game that was made nearly 10 years ago means that obviously the older game is relevant. While the comparisons to games of other sports can get a bit over the top, i think for most of us it just comes down to the fact that they are good games, and madden is not. what else are we supposed to do, people say stop comparing it to the past, so we compare to things present, which is OTHER SPORTS GAMES... then they come back and say stop comparing it to other sports games. so what are we supposed to do? just ignore it and give EA a pat on the back and say "you tried, good job..." Yeah, I don't think so. In real life there are no pats on the back and participation awards. You either deliver or you don't. And if you can't, then we have to find a replacement that will.

The fact that I consider buying a PS2 just to play 2k5 shows that EA has not delivered and need to go. It won't happen, but a man can still dream right?

# 155 Jermaine76 @ 06/14/14 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaymeeAwesome


	We do not know what you do, but by your remarks it doesn't sound like you own a business that employs hundreds of employees or else you would understand where we are coming from. On a side note, the NFLs #1 priority is a strong brand name. EAs #1 is the bottom line. Neither of these parties have gameplay as a top priority. Sure, we as consumers suffer, but once people accept the fact that we are not top priority then you give yourself the chance to actually enjoy anything you invest money in. This journey that brought us to M15 started with the vision on M13. Stop comparing it to games of the past or other sports games. It's a waste of time. Do your research, play the game before you buy, and make a decision. Your life will be easier by not looking for faults.

He's right. Just look up OldManWilliams on YouTube. He's a former game changer of EA Sports and he'll flat out tell you that they're in there to maintain the status quo as it pertains to this game.

# 156 SageInfinite @ 06/14/14 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jermaine76


	He's right. Just look up OldManWilliams on YouTube. He's a former game changer of EA Sports and he'll flat out tell you that they're in there to maintain the status quo as it pertains to this game.

That dude is hilarious.

# 157 OhMrHanky @ 06/14/14 10:14 PM

Obviously, those 2k8 show a lot of problems with madden for the past decade. And, it is depressing watching that footage and wondering where football games could be right now. I'll tell the one thing in particular I see in all of those clips that so distinguishes this game from madden and could go towards helping madden if they figure out how to implement it. Every single player at every single point during the play is either looking at the football or u can tell they have some sort of awareness of where the football is. They also have awareness of players around them. Not only does this greatly affect gameplay, but it also greatly affects animations. Every single player is reacting to the football, which, of course makes sense. U see their heads turn towards it, they reach their arms out for it. This might be one of the biggest spots that madden has just never figured out. It's almost a philosophical thing. 2k told their developers, 'make the players real and have sense, particularly to have sense of where the ball is and respond to that.' Madden has always said, 'ok, if CB x is on WR y, and they have a rating differential of x-y+randomNumber*calculation, then the WR y wins.' The ball is thrown, the catch is made. The outcomes always feel scripted, and madden hopes the animations play out alright. Instead of simply creating the physics of the game and letting the players play. And, don't get me wrong, I feel they are finally approaching this. The shift to the infinity engine shows that. They finally decided to actually include a physics engine which would have seemed a no brainer (for 2k, it was obviously a no brainer). For me, I was extremely impressed with madden 13 (personalizing my sliders helped. Out of the box, the game was still flawed to be sure). For their first attempt at real time physics, they actually did a pretty good job (or, FIFA did a good job and then offered their source code as a base. Lol). I played at least 5 seasons over the year with that game, and right before 25 came out, I was STILL seeing animations I had never seen before. They squirelled something with 25 though and sort of made it a combo of RTP and too much scripting. Anyways, 15 is looking better and the graphics at least are hitting true. The game footage looks promising (all-pro skill level) and I think will be an improvement. But, I still think that that one thing is missing and may always be missing and that is that idea of having every player simply be their 'own' player and act and respond to the ball and to players in their vicinity. That's why they all look like robots. Maybe, 15 is trying that, but to be sure, to date, it definitely feels as if ALL maddens of the past were NOT even trying to implement this philosophy. FIFA has done a fabulous job with that. I totally feel like I'm playing with a bunch of individual players, NOT a bunch of robots that simply turn at the same time and coordinate with each other where to go. Hopefully, madden is actually on the right path, but man would I love to play ESPN 2k15 instead. Lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 158 bukktown @ 06/14/14 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBzrule


	Rex says they like to be challenged. We, the community, challenged them back in 2009 when they were making Madden 10 to match 2k5's tackling and to this day they have not met this challenge. They gone around it with Pro-Tak, they've added physics and they still haven't met this challenge. What else do they need? Ohhh I know, next year. Always next year. And for those who say Rex wasn't around then. I know. But I know Rex doesn't write code either.

If he doesn't write code, what's he good for? (Rhetorical question)
I believe the biggest problem with Madden is that they use too many gameplay designers. The game of football already exists. COPY IT! There is nothing to "design".

# 159 Hooe @ 06/14/14 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bukktown


	If he doesn't write code, what's he good for? (Rhetorical question) I believe the biggest problem with Madden is that they use too many gameplay designers. The game of football already exists. COPY IT! There is nothing to "design".

They have game designers because they are making a video game.

There's plenty to design with respect to control scheme, user interface, gameplay mechanics at the per-player level, gameplay balancing of all the ratings and how they affect each interaction, game modes, artificial intelligence for players in various assignments / AI play calling / AI roster management, flow through the game from screen to screen, and so on. The rules of football alone don't provide enough guidance to make a complete product.

# 160 Kaiser Wilhelm @ 06/14/14 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bukktown


	If he doesn't write code, what's he good for? (Rhetorical question) I believe the biggest problem with Madden is that they use too many gameplay designers. The game of football already exists. COPY IT! There is nothing to "design".

If his position is anything like that which David Sears held, his job isn't to code, but to go back and forth between the dev team and "management." I don't know the details of his job but it isn't unprecedented that a talented developer being put into a position where he never actually codes.

As for there being nothing to "design" you are sadly mistaken. How do you think you "copy" football? Just take a copier to a football game and somehow absorb it into code? You have to design the code, you have to design the physics engine, you have to design the franchise mode, the rules, and AI logic, ect, ect. There is no way to "copy" football. Video gaming is an illusion! It's an illusion to replicate reality! You have to go through careful design to create an illusion. If you think NFL2k, NBA 2k, MLB THE SHOW, NHL 14, FIFA 14, etc are anything more than the illusion of reality, you're wrong. They just do it better.

If you want to question the designers, then you need to question their decisions and execution, but not the quantity. The fact of the matter is we only ever receive the finished product and to my knowledge only one member of this community has first hand experience of how the actual process works.

« Previous 1 2…5 6 789 10 11…18 19 Next »

More Links

EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively