As mentioned on NSLog();, EA has very nicely taken the entire football video game genre and in one swift, decisive move, kicked everyone squah in the nuts. EA somehow ($$) managed to secure an exclusive license to make football games with the NFL license. That’s right, Sega. Sony, you too. Midway? Wait, you still make video games? No more NFL for any of you.
What does this really mean? Well, as we’ve all seen with Microsoft (and as common economic sense tells us), a monopoly will do nothing more for football video games than put a strangle hold on the balls of all football game players EA into a position where they can say “eh, let’s release a $60 roster upgrade this year”. And what are people going to do? Say no? Like hell! We’ll all be buying it year after year, saying how much it sucks, but not doing anything about it.
Then, after a few years of BS has passed, EA will put out a good Madden game. Why? Same reason presidential candidates start trotting around the country a year before the election. They need to gain face. Then, in 2012, when Sega can release a football game, if they choose to, Madden will look amazing.
Of course, they might end up getting the deal renewed. Who knows. I can only hope that EA doesn’t get the NBA license too. That’d be buying the money mint.