EA Snaps Up Exclusive NFL License

Rival products doomed as EA signs a new five year deal with the NFL.

While American football can be something of an enigma to many Europeans, there's no denying the sport's continued success in videogame form. The sport's professional organisation, the National Football League (NFL), has been generous with its licensing agreements, allowing multiple companies to make official games at the same time. Until now, that is.

EA announced on Monday that it has signed an exclusive, five-year licensing deal with the NFL that would allow only EA to make officially sanctioned games. This is good news for EA, which has made billions of dollars with its Madden NFL franchise.

The biggest losers in the deal are Take-Two, Sega and developer Visual Concepts. The companies worked together on the ESPN NFL Football series, which has recently made a good run at EA's gridiron throne.

The EA-NFL deal covers all platforms, outside of mobile phones and Web-based games, and all game types, including management simulation games.

EA currently does not make a gridiron sim game, suggesting that one might be in development. The company refused to elaborate on the speculation though.

Inside the industry, there is a considerable amount of dissatisfaction with the deal.

One analyst, speaking to US site GameSpot, captured the current mood outside of EA, saying: "I really respect them, but the consumer really loses."

"EA is both evil and really smart."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games