EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively

[dkp23]

Look at 2k14, imo, 2k is catering and making a sim bball game. The stuff i use to do on the old lives running around like playing run n gun on the arcade i couldnt do. I dont see that bball game getting hated on, it gets praised for the innovation and the great graphics. The realism and how authentic the game plays with momentum and physics. You may see an odd play every so often, but you arent going to be running around with a player slicing through the defense and scoring 100 points, unless you are playing on low level.

I dont see why EA can't take that approach too, if they create a great simulator, people would love it and the notion that the casual gamer wont, i dont think that is true. I think they would, people like realism and the casual gamer loves graphics. I am not talking about stupid gameplay trailers with upclose shots, but great graphics on the screen when you actually play the game.

Really, either EA is catering to the casual more or they just have a horrid development team that can't get it right, either way,it is bad. My guess is, they are probably still using the same code from madden 06. Time to scrap it up and build a brand new engine. Every year, it is "we built it from the ground up", im sure nothing was built from the ground up at this point as many aspects of the game remain the same and people continue to whine about the same issues every single year.

[FaceMask]

Quote: Originally Posted by kehlis

I could be way off base but couldn't it have been that it was the same deal for any company that wanted it and that each deal wasn't specifically designed for a particular company?

Not off base at all. That actually would make a lot of sense. Whether they were per unit or not is the thing I'm wanting to get concrete evidence for.

If DrJones' info is accurate, then that would raise some new questions in my mind.

I don't know if anyone in media cares enough about this anymore, but it would be nice if someone in that field could interview an NFL licensing official about this. Contract terms may prevent divulging even old info, but it would be interesting to hear from them what their position was on the whole matter back then.

[Jerros]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

As a gamer that played NES, SNES, and ultimately stopped until I stumbled onto MLB the Show 09 on my buddy's PS3, from what I have read, doesn't Madden on the PS2/xbox offer a more simulation experience compare to the 360/PS3 offerings? Didn't the PS2/xbox Madden "simulation" versions sell quite a boatload? Did they also sell more than the PS3/360 versions? Did pre Madden 05 sell more than post Madden 05? If and only if the PS2/XBOX was more simulation, why do people keep saying that EA Madden will forever cater to the casual arcaders? Doesn't the PS2/XBOX era say differently and that simulation can be marketed and sold to casual gamers? Unless of course I'm mistaken and Madden never truly offered a simulation experience ever. Just curious.

Well, think about what you just said, look at the time frames you're talking about when Madden was promoting a game closer in simulation. They had one keep element pushing them to make a credible game, COMPETITION. EA couldn't just cruise along with Madden back then because there were other companies that created football games before this exclusive monopoly destroyed the core of sports gaming. Madden has ZERO motivation to make a game that sim fans want. There's nothing out there to measure themselves by except old titles which sadly are still be compared to Madden. Kinda shows you how far they actually haven't come.

This is why Madden will never be a sim. They are catering to exactly what you said, the casual gamer who knows nothing about football and could care less to know. Most people don't want to play a sim because that requires thinking and strategy. That is too time consuming and considered boring to the average Madden player. And those ore the people EA cares about the most because they are Madden's biggest supporters.

Also, lets not get confused about the numbers. Madden sells are misleading. True enough you have a loyal fan following of casual players but the sim crowd also buys Madden because there's no other alternative. But again, they will never cater to the minority, only the majority, which is the casual gamer.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jerros

Well, think about what you just said, look at the time frames you're talking about when Madden was promoting a game closer in simulation. They had one keep element pushing them to make a credible game, COMPETITION. EA couldn't just cruise along with Madden back then because there were other companies that created football games before this exclusive monopoly destroyed the core of sports gaming. Madden has ZERO motivation to make a game that sim fans want. There's nothing out there to measure themselves by except old titles which sadly are still be compared to Madden. Kinda shows you how far they actually haven't come. This is why Madden will never be a sim. They are catering to exactly what you said, the casual gamer who knows nothing about football and could care less to know. Most people don't want to play a sim because that requires thinking and strategy. That is too time consuming and considered boring to the average Madden player. And those ore the people EA cares about the most because they are Madden's biggest supporters. Also, lets not get confused about the numbers. Madden sells are misleading. True enough you have a loyal fan following of casual players but the sim crowd also buys Madden because there's no other alternative. But again, they will never cater to the minority, only the majority, which is the casual gamer.

I did consider the competition influence, plus the new console launches. If there are any programmers in here, how difficult or what are the challenges of moving the created video game source code (or whatever it's called, player movement, artificial intelligence, etc) from one system to the next?

Asking because if the Madden brand was continually growing, if the simulation source code from the PS2/XBOX era were already established and functioning properly, wouldn't it take more resources to rebuild from the ground up, and spit out an arcade. Exclusivity locked up competition and threw away the key. Wouldn't it be easier to simply port over a functional product (PS2/XBOX simulation) and slap a new coat of paint (i.e. shiny graphics, better textures, more details) Isn't part of the reason for EA going exclusive to take things easy. A complete port would be the easy way, right?

[cowboy_kmoney]

If EA wants 2k to compete then open the market up and let them in. They knw it would never b the same because 2k did things back then thsts in there games thsts still not in Madden so u tell me if they were still in the game who would b killing the game right now? EA is just feel themselves because there is no other game out there to Make them step up.

[OhMrHanky]

I would say there are varying opinions on whether former maddens were meant to be arcade or sim based. For me, personally, strictly my opinion here, they may very well have been TRYING to make a sim game back then (maybe, always, who really knows?). However, their version of sim ALWAYS felt like arcade to me. So, when NFL gameday came out in 96 and improved upon itself in 97, I personally gravitated towards that game because it had a more sim feel to me. Then, gameday just started getting worse in 98, and I went back to madden. Then, 2k came out in 2000? 1999? Whenever, right around that time. Here, maybe madden was TRYING to make a sim game, but whatever they had going on in their code just always felt Arcady to me. 2k felt and looked much more realistic. I still remember the first time I played 2k and saw a safety jump in the air behind a WR going for an int, but the WR caught the ball in front of him and kept running as the safety was now out of position to make the tackle. This was one of the most realistic things I had ever seen in a football game before. The player movement felt more real, too. My thing with madden, particularly in that era, was that the players always felt like they were 'skating' around. There was absolutely no sense of player movement or momentum. So, to say that earlier maddens were geared towards sim more than recent history, I just don't know that holds true. Maybe, they were trying for sim, but for me, madden always felt Arcady. And, then u have the ALLPRO level where u blow out the CPU. Then, Allmadden, where your oline blocks nobody, their players do whatever they want, etc. that absolutely felt Arcady to me. That, to me, was something fundamental in their code base and was stuck there until 2010, I'd say, when they tried to imement a better engine. And, again, in madden 13, when they finally went to a real time physics engine. So, I don't know. I think they may have been trying for sim all along, but they sure didn't know how to implement it. Lol.


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[Glenn33]

Me personally ... I am tired of waxing poetic over a game that is 10 years old. I loved it truly and it was an all timer for me. But I have moved on. Madden is what it is and I have learned to enjoy what we have. So RIP 2k5. I am going to start dating someone else now.

[Demoncrom]

And the biggest loser/jerk award for e3 goes to (drumroll)

Rex Dickson from EA with his bs "bring it 2k" comment.
What does he win folks.

Another year of mediocore football for the masses. Yeah NFL!