lotsofdvds

Those hoping to get their NFL gaming fix from anywhere other than EA anytime soon are apparently in for a long wait: EA revealed today that it had extended its exclusive contract with the organization until the end of the 2012 season, which falls in February of 2013. A similar deal was also made with the NFL players association.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/12/ea...-lock-to-2012/

fumanstan

I like Madden, but it sucks that there isn't even the opportunity for real competition.

Noonan

Well after the awful All Pro Football, I don't think 2K would be able to compete even if they were able to develop a new game. That being said, I still play NFL 2K5 all the time.

Can 1st party developers make NFL games like the MLB license?

lotsofdvds

Nope. EA is the only company that can make anything involving the NFL for anything.

XavierMike

Hooooray! More NFL Tour...

mr.snowmizer

"Awful" is an awfully strong description.

"Underdeveloped", in season modes, etc, or "unbalanced", in terms of the effectiveness of some of the biggest stars, probably covers the vast majority of the opinion of interested gamers who ended up passing on buying the game.

It was effectively a first effort again, and it felt like it. Fixing the rookie mistakes, lowering the initial price, and increasing customization options (there's no need to tread lightly, hoping to avoid the NFL's ire now) would remove most of the self-inflicted roadblocks that guaranteed they wouldn't compete.

Also, release in the spring. It's suicide to compete with what are now cultural events... the release of NCAA Football in July and the 9000 lb gorilla in August. Ship in the spring, long after Madden has grown old, but early enough that football addicts would have to think twice about just waiting it out for the college game.

Noonan

Considering how great 2K1-2K5 were and on top of that the fact that 2K4 and 2K5 were only $20, All Pro was definitely awful. After playing it, I wouldn't spend $10 for a copy.

sauce07

I spent $9.99 and overpaid. horrible game, just not fun to play

DVDChris

darnit, I've been waiting for a new Tecmo Bowl with real licenses.

forsho01

i spent $4.99 on all-pro and i think it's a pretty fun game to come back to once in a while.

spainlinx0

All great points. It still amazes me they thought they could get away with that price. They really should make it the simplest thing in the world to make customizable "real" rosters.

dvdsteve2000

This blows. I'm a true football fan, I love everything about the game...except Madden football. Is 2K5 backward compatible yet?

neocheddar02

I love the Madden games and have been buying them for years, but unless they come up with some new innovations, I might pass on 09 . It seems that all we're getting is an updated roster these days, with a few minor tweaks.

TaTTooD

I haven't been impressed with any next gen madden yet. I've been buying the game since it was first released on genesis and all the way through the xbox. Looks like I'll be renting them through 2012-2013.

Deftones

That's too bad. I think Activision should've made a play for the license, since they are now bigger than EA.

spainlinx0

I'm surprised that no one else took it. Can you imagine how huge a hit it would be to lose real players for the Madden license?

fumanstan

I can't imagine EA would let anyone outbid them for the license.

spainlinx0

Well I hope someone at least bid it up to astronomical proportions.

lotsofdvds

Yes it is.

Noonan

Not that I'm trying to defend EA here but what innovations are you guys looking for? The game of football says the same so how much can you expect them to change the video game. The mechanics in Madden are pretty solid as are the graphics. I would like them to bring back the full announcers instead of the stupid "stadium announcers" they've been using the last few years.

PixyJunket

I'd actually like an fast-paced, arcade-style football game like the old NFL Blitz games or.. Super Tecmo Bowl.. wasn't EA making one of those? I know they had like twelve different NFL games released in 2007 so it was kind of hard to know which one was which.

lotsofdvds

* Upgrade the presentation. Highlights and stats and overlays and halftime shows and all the things that 2K5 did years ago. And then give an option to turn all that off and play it like the Madden of old for all the purists.

* The ability to save in-game.

* Make NFL Head Coach a feature of Madden, not a stand alone $40 game.

* Some sort of use of the ESPN license they stole away from 2K Sports just to keep them from using it.

Noonan

NFL Tour just came out and was done by the EA Big studio. And it's only $39. The demo was decent. It's basically an updated NFL Street.

lotsofdvds - I agree completely with using the ESPN license more. The 2-Minute drill halftime show with Chris Berman 2K5 has is great.

PerryD

EA got their butt handed to them at the beginning of each generation, so they prevented this from happening to them for this generation. For the PS1, they tried to use SNES-quality 2-d animation while Sony went completely 3D, and that year EA pulled Madden just before release. During the PS2 generation, Sega had released a much higher quality 2K for the Dreamcast, forcing EA to spend some money getting some decent motion capture.

For this generation, who knows what would have happened? Who would have raised the bar, either in gameplay or technically? To me, even with the horsepower in the 360 and PS3, the players still look like zombies, with dead eyes and stilted animations. Someone needs to get some independent AI for the players so they can move around more naturally, before, during, and especially after a play.

Gameplay-wise, for me, I wish these Madden games would be easier to play. I mean, it would be great if the running back would straight arm, or spin away from tackles without any input from me, and if I point my player towards a hole, the linebackers should keep trying to create an opening for me to go. I've never had a good experience with the running game. I have the same complaint with the NBA games, I miss the old SNES NCAA Basketball game, great 3D graphics, the camera always stayed behind the player you were controlling, why isn't there 3rd person 3D point of view in the new games?