I did not want to start this topic last night because it is OT, but now I can respond: I am very upset, this harms consumers by eliminating choice and stagnating competition, competition that made Madden much better the last 3 years. Btw, in May the NFLPA made magazines RETRACT statements that this was going down; they lied. It has been stated this was in the works since spring. Anyhow, this is horrible news. Why?
1. Competition is good. It forces evolution of the game and development of new features. It keeps games fresh and gives gamers the option to choose games that meet their specific tastes.
2. The Sega ESPN line over the last two years have been just as good as the Madden series and has kept Madden honest. While I like Madden better, I can honestly say I feel Sega had done a great job of pushing the Madden series. Their game was so good I bought NFL2k4 and Madden 2004.
3. The Sega price cuts were GREAT for gamers ($20 for a NEW A+ title?!) and finally allowed a lot of gamers to see that Madden was not the only, or even best, game on the block. This was creating healthy competition and would have surely carried over into the next generation. If anyone remembers how Madden dropped the ball with the PS release (and delay) and how 939 Studios/GameDay really made Madden evolve. EA was happy shoveling more of the same old stuff. Competition and having to fight for market share resulted in a better product for consumers.
4. EA has a history of gutting their Madden franchise with every jump to a new console. E.g. the majority of the gameplay features found outside the actual game were around way back in 1994 with Front Page Sports. The future looks a lot like the PS2 release: Pretty graphics with no substance, with yearly updates selling us features we already had this generation. With no competition there will be no place for NFL fans to turn to get a product they like better.
5. This could spell disaster for certain next gen consoles. It is a fact that sport games are big sellers and "must have" items on consoles. A console without an NFL game is a dead console. Notice how EA not supporting the Dreamcast severely hurt the DC. One of EA's reasons was they did not believe the market could support 3 consoles. What it really meant was they could not support 3 consoles, meaning that this opened doors for the competition. This is where the NFL2k/EPSN series roots are. This deal puts EA in a position to seek a king's ransom to support a platform in an unfair manner because there wont be any competition. If EA chooses to ignore the PS3 Sony wont have the 939/GameDay to fall back on. If EA chooses to ignore the Xbox MS wont have Fever to fall back on. If EA chooses to ignore the Revolution Nintendo wont have Sega(?) to fall back on. EA can essentially black ball any console they choose, and because there is basically a no competition clause there is nothing these companies can do about it.
6. With this deal exclusive features will be a very artificial way to sway support from one platform to another. The ESPN series was pushing new things like the crib and neat drafting features, we wont have these options for development, but also will get stuck in a situation where "Console X has the game, but Console Z has the same game with a ton of features". EA is basically in a position to reap insane amounts of preferential treatment from console companies. So not only have they blackballed their competitors, they are also now in a position to dictate to the console makers.
This is a totally unhealthy relationship that the NFL and EA have formed. EA must have paid the NFL a whole lot money than EA + Sony/MS/Sega were previously paying. This is a very sad day indeed for gamers. I have disliked many of EA's past policies and how they treat developers and gamers in general. As much as I love the Madden franchise, this may be the straw that breaks the camals back. I may actually begin boycotting EA games.
All I can say is SHAME on the NFL, and double shame on the cowards over at EA. Obviously they were afraid of healthy competition that could hurt their cash cow. Their solution was to form a monopoly and eliminate the compitition instead of innovating and creating a better product. Sad, sad indeed.
Between EA's game development policy, how they treat their employees, their treatment of developers, and now their view toward healthy competition I may boycott all EA titles.
I guess in the end it wont matter because EA has the license now and even in 5 years no one will be in a position to challenge. I guess the reality is big business wins and the consumer loses. Smart move by EA, as Gamespot quotes and analyst, "EA is very smart and very evil". Give them credit for being smart... and also not looking after the consumer. Sad day for us gamers.
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