NFL extends exclusive license with Electronic Arts through 2013

will never stop using EA because the madden franchise has always been with ea sports. its an absolute shame because i would love for someone else to get a crack at it and fix the problems that have plagued madden for the past few years.

ESPN 2k5 was a superior game from a football standpoint, hands down, in my opinion.

That being said, I don’t buy the exclusivity deal being all about locking up an audience… I used to, but if all they wanted was the captive audience, wouldn’t they have stood pat? I think it was more about giving them time to come up with a better Madden product when they realized that speed kills. ’04 Mike Vick, anyone?

Since the deal (Madden ‘06) we’ve seen… the Vision Cone, the transition to the next-gen consoles, a complete revamping of their statistics system (including 48-rated players, haha) and now a new tackling system, and in the last two years the new Madden Ultimate Team. Trying new things leads me to think they’re still tinkering. I don’t know if they’re currently better than 2k5 given the time/roster differences, but it’s closer now.

I was expecting too see at least the end of the exclusive. EA had to channel a lot of effort towards FIFA because they had a very strong market competitor, and after lots of attempts, they’ve nailed it a couple of years ago.

NFL 2K5 is my favourite football game, along the first Genesis Madden, College Football II and NFL QB Club 96 (don’t like any of the first PlayStation-era games). While they wouldn’t get Boomer, Suzy Kolber or Mel Kiper Jr doing voiceovers now (ESPN has a deal with EA), they could still do something with other networks. The presentation of the game far outshines anything EA has done in Madden. Plus, they would probably release the game for computers.

I’m just surprised, other than the poorly planned Head Coach series, nobody tried to tackle the game from a managerial (or Front Office, in your parts) perspective. Drafting, salary management and roster tweaking were my favourite parts on Madden 08. Imagine starting as a simple position coach, then moving all the way up to HC (mixing up some GM options).

Coming to think of it, I have an unusually large collection for someone living in a country where they were barely released

I was hoping maybe 2k sports would get a shot at it too. Why can’t they just sell licenses to both EA and 2k sports like the NBA does.

Madden has gotten progessively worse over the last few years. Now it doesn’t even have a sprint button, What’s up with that? The last great improvement was the highlight stick. Everything after that, they could’ve kept. Now’s definately the time for another nfl game. It’s already a general concensus on the street that NBA 2K is better then NBA Live. It would probably be the same with a new football game, especially with the impending lock-out looming.