EA & NFL Ink Exclusive Deal News
Chris Leyton
14/12/2004
EA gain monopolistic control of the American Football market...
It was rumoured as far back as May, however today EA tightened their monopolistic grip on the American sports market with confirmation that it has secured an exclusive agreement with the National Football League (NFL).
The agreement between the NFL and the Players Inc. grants EA the sole rights to put NFL players, stadiums and teams within its games, throwing severe doubt on the future of the ESPN series from SEGA and Take-Two.
With its critical acclaim and budget pricing the ESPN series has eaten away at Maddenās market share this year, which led to EA cutting the price on its sporting range. Whereas Madden has outsold the ESPN NFL Football series in previous years at a ratio of 10-1, itās believed that this year was closer to 1.5ā“1.
Take-Two representatives confirmed that the title was not a āmaterial contributorā to its financial profits, but was understandably somewhat miffed, commenting in a statement to the press:
"We believe that the decisions of the National Football League and Players Inc. to grant an exclusive license for video games do a tremendous disservice to the consumers and sports fans, whose funds ultimately support the NFL, by limiting their choices, curbing creativity and almost certainly leading to higher game prices,"
Terms of the five-year agreement were not disclosed; however our previous coverage indicated that the deal could be worth a staggering $1 billion across the period. Itās believed that EA plan to use the license for other brands outside of the Madden and NFL Street series.
It does however leave you to question what next; perhaps Konamiās long-running battle to get licensed players in the Pro Evolution Soccer series, may have all been in vain.