Gaming Monopoly? EA Sports Signs Exclusive Licensing Agreement with the NFL & NFLPA:



Looks like football videogames could stagnate a bit in the near future, as Electronic Arts has entered into an exclusive 5-year licensing agreement with the National Football League and the National Football League Players' Association to develop, publish, and distribute football videogames. EA now has exclusive rights to NFL teams, stadiums, and players for use in their games, which include John Madden Football and NFL Street. As a result, rival franchises (e.g., Sega's "ESPN football"; Sony's "NFL Gameday"; Midway "NFL Blitz") will be discontinued, leaving EA's offerings as the only choice for NFL videogame players.



With no competition, will EA mail it in? Probably not, for at least two good reasons, and one not-so-good reason: 1) general market competition amongst videogame companies should still encourage EA to work hard on developing their football games (i.e., even if it is the only football game on the market, a bad football game is still a bad football game, and most consumers would probably spend their money on something else); 2) bad football games would likely damage EA's brand-name, which could adversley affect sales of other EA product lines; and 3) there remains some competition for the football gaming audience, since companies can still develop football games, just as long as they don't use NFL teams, stadiums, and players (and according to IGN, Midway is doing just that, with a game called "Blitz: Playmakers" that features off-field drug use and generic players -- sounds like a winning combination!).



Nevertheless, exclusive licenses do generally discourage technological advancement, so we'll see what happens. However, for those of you who don't like listening to John Madden's voice or his commentary, it looks like you might have to wait until 2010 to play a football videogame.

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