For example, let's look at EA and the NASCAR license. EA Sports recently acquired exclusive rights for interactive games with the NASCAR license until 2009. EA recently released NASCAR: Chase for the Cup 2005, and (contrary to the expectations of some) it is a solid title. But if you want to play a new NASCAR game on the PC, tough luck. EA hasn't released Chase for the Cup 2005 on the PC. And with this exclusive license, they killed NASCAR Racing by Papyrus, acclaimed as one of the best racing sims ever. NASCAR 2005 (EA) might be a great game. But for fans of a game with a stronger sim component, or fans of customization, or fans that simply want a different NASCAR experience are left out.

Now EA apologists will say that Papyrus can release a game without licenses, as can SEGA. And we hope that SEGA does release a 2K6 football game. (If it weren't for the demise of Papyrus, which shut down about eight months after losing the NASCAR license, we'd hope for something like MASCAR Racing or something similar.) And it's true. But in today's marketplace, having an official league license gives that game a huge advantage in the marketplace. Whether fair or not, games without official licenses struggle to compete. And poor games with official licenses (see EA's FIFA series) vastly outsell excellent titles with fewer licenses (see Konami's Winning Eleven series). By limiting licenses to one company, leagues aren't allowing games to compete in the marketplace of ideas and innovation. Instead, the game with the logos on the box wins by default.

But should the NFL/NFLPA (or NASCAR, FIFA, the PGA, the Premier League, etc.) care? They just pocketed anywhere from 300 million to over a billion dollars to let some video game company put logos on helmets and call players by their real names instead of Jonte Bellpepper and Mandy Ross (stars of the Minneapolis Fighting Odins). In the short term, this deal will help stuff the league's coffers. But in the long term, this deal will hurt the NFL and the players.

First, there's the issue of long term license devaluation. If the lack of an NFL license kills development of football games without this license (a distinct possibility), then when the license comes up for renewal in 2009, there may not be any companies that are able to make an excellent next generation football game in so short an amount of time.

Second, granting licenses for a sports game is very different than most other licenses. It's not the same as just slapping an athlete's picture and an NFL logo on a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi. Sports games are an amazing vehicle with which a league can develop fan loyalty and fan interest. When playing a sports game, sports gamers get deep into a team because when they have the control, they are the team. They develop a detailed interest in strategy, player characteristics, and other things that you don't get from buying an official replica jersey. Furthermore, excellent sports titles can make sports fans. Ask people that have been introduced to soccer by the Winning Eleven and Football Manager series of games. An excellent NFL title is great advertising in countries where football isn't as popular (e.g. the UK, Western Europe, Japan).

Now if EA comes out with the best football game ever in 2006, people will dive into it and it'll be tons of free advertising for the league. But if EA ever comes out with a ho-hum game, people will still buy it since it is the only game in town. But they won't play it incessantly. They won't join multiple online leagues with their friends. Casual sports fans won't be pulled into the game. And the NFL will lose thousands of hours of free league advertising and a pool of free fans.

And for those at EA that are sure that the Madden series will be excellent from 2004 to 2009...well, we hope you're right. But remember your history. The first Madden to be released on the Playstation, Madden 96, was cancelled due to being a horrible game. With the release of the PS3 and XBox 2 sometime during this exclusive deal, there's always the possibility that the first next-gen Madden will be a dud. And if the only NFL game is poor, then the NFL will lose out on even more free advertising, more fans immersing themselves in the NFL, etc.

(By the way, I don't think that Electronic Arts will come out with a horrible game. And I think that SEGA is just as likely to release a dud as EA. But if there's only one game out there, the fans have no choice and the NFL suffers. Multiple NFL games increases the odds of having a good NFL title for fans to play constantly.)

And what about Electronic Arts? Is this a great deal for them. In some ways, yes. Is $300 million worth it to kill the competition? $500 million? One billion dollars? It's arguable. A market analyst has said that he seriously questions EA's judgment if they paid more than $200 million. We don't know what EA paid, but word is that the estimates of $300 million are on the low side. From a strictly business perspective, this may not be the smartest deal.

From a PR perspective, this deal is an absolute nightmare. Regardless of whether this was "strictly business" or not, it is perceived as an assassination attempt. The majority of fans think ESPN NFL 2K5 is better than Madden 2005, and that instead of competing with SEGA/Visual Concepts, EA decided to try and win the market via brute force. EA already is considered a bit arrogant with the "ham sandwich" comment, and now they seem even more like a company that will talk up a fair fight but pull out a gun if they're losing. Nobody likes a perceived bully. And whether it's a fair characterization or not, people will remember this when Madden 2006 comes out.

But this also hurts EA from a development perspective. Developers make better games when they have good competition. EA's March Madness series has been mediocre at best over the last few years. With the emergence of a excellent (albeit flawed) College Hoops 2K5, EA has to make something good if they want any market share. Otherwise, there's no need for real innovation.

(Note to EA: "Hit sticks" and "off the ball" passsing and all of the other "innovations" that sound great in a press release and/or preview but don't really add much to gameplay don't count.)

Imagine if EA put an extra $30 million into hiring one hundred employees to work on things like improving ball physics, player control, defensive linemen AI, cornerback super-abilities, in-game audio, full integration with XBox Live, and other innovations that we can't even think of.

EA's stock price might get a boost. But there are a lot of negatives that are associated with this.

-----

As for blame, well, there's lots of blame that can go around. We can blame the NFL if (as reported by some) they were only offering an exclusive license. If this is the case, then EA had to make this move. And/or we can blame EA for pursuing an exclusive license to cripple the competition, as reported by others. But pointing fingers will get us nowhere.

Unfortunately, the deal is done (and don't bank on a shakeup in the NFLPA, antitrust lawsuit, or Congressional inquiry...they won't happen). Whether fairly or not, EA is now the Empire in the sports gaming world, with Madden playing Darth Vader. And whether fairly or not, Sega and Visual Concepts are suddenly the good guys.

What are we going to do about it? First, I'm not going to call for a boycott of the Madden series. That's a personal decision. If Madden is an excellent title, then it is my opinion that people should support it.

But at the same rate, if whatever game is released by SEGA/Visual Concepts is good, support it as well. And support it regardless of whether it's CFL 2K6, AFL 2K6, USFL 2K6 (how 'bout dem Bandits), or even Mutant League 2K6. Unless EA still has the Mutant League license....I wonder if it's exclusive. In a later article, we'll discuss some strategies that SEGA/Visual Concepts can take to survive.

More importantly, it's important for your voice to be heard. Contact the NFL, NFLPA, and EA Sports. But more importantly, contact the licensing and public relations departments of the other leagues. Contact the NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS. You can even contact FIFA, NASCAR, the Premier League, and the PGA and let them know how important it is to not have exclusive licenses when they come up for renewal. Many in the gaming press and community (including myself) made a mistake in not speaking out when the NASCAR license became exclusive. We should have seen this as the beginning of a trend, and failed to do so.

Regardless, it's important for us to recognize that exclusive licensing is terrible for sports gaming. And it's important for us to let licensing departments and gaming companies know that this is terrible. It doesn't matter if the exclusive license goes to a behemoth like EA Sports, an underdog like SEGA/Visual Concepts, or some unknown gaming company. If gaming companies continue to rack up exclusive licenses, the sports gamer will suffer.

Note: Discuss this article in our forums