You know, it takes large sums of cash to corner any given market. So when EA set out to do just that by securing exclusive NFL rights for their Madden franchise, we all figured a ton of money must be changing hands. But do you realize how much ?
Well, here's a clue. According to GamePolitics, we now know how much it cost EA to obtain NFL player rights for their long-running and ultra-profitable franchise. Former Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Dave Pear posted the NFLPA's 2007 LM-2, which is a report required by the U.S. Department of Labor. In it, the amount of money received by EA for "licensing payments to the NFLPA" is revealed: $35,141,950. Yep, that's over $35 million, and it does not include the money EA needed to fork over to nab team names, logos, uniforms, stadiums, etc.; that money was just for the player names. And remember, that $35 million only went to the Player's Union, and we have to believe that further licensing paid directly to the league cost even more. Therefore, EA obviously doled out a huge amount of cash in order to keep any competitors off the playing field, so-to-speak. It seems to have worked, as the Madden franchise continues to sell well each and every year, and Madden NFL 09 was one of the better installments in recent memory.
Then again, we have to wonder: as entrenched as that franchise is, did EA need the exclusive rights? Would it not have continued to be a colossal cash cow even if 2K had kept making their football games? Millions upon millions of people know the Madden name, so we're wondering if that recognition would've been enough…
maybe it explains why the game has lacked so much since 2005, no money, but that may be a stretch
and i have to disagree with your assessment that 09 was one of the better installments, an improvement over the other garbage they had put out….yes, but still not as good as some of the older, pre-exclusive versions
there is still a ton of work to be done, and this is coming from a die-hard madden fanboy for the past 13 plus years
hopefully Madden NFL 10 fixes a lot of the issues, i still have hope
Pssh…EA is stupid for that. I wish 2k football was still around. Then Madden wouldn't be able to put out the crap it does now. Well its not crap, but the number of changes between every madden release is comically small.
The only thing I want to know is why is the AI in the PS2 version BETTER than what's in their now? Why are kickoff and punt returns broken? What happened to the balance?
-Arvis
Well at least we know for sure now that EA WILL and MUST produce a Madden each year just to cover their costs, I'm sure the $35m was a long term investment. And while most of us would rather just receive updates for a few dollars, I'm sure EA would Rather have us all fork over $60 each year. bah!
I'm not a 360 fanboy by the way, the pic is a picture of my 360 with the RRoD that happened 2 days ago :/
@photo K,
Just an FYI for ya,
Go over to YouTube & search for "RRoD fixes". There's some very vids showing you how to easily repair it yourself, using 8 pennies wrapped in electrical tapewith some heatsink compound(pennies are used as "heatsink" helpers)that should fix most RRoD's which shouls also continue to keep the overheating part cooled down.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 2/4/2009 10:57:47 PM
@photo k
Sorry to hear that man!
This is a lot of money, now they just have to bring out a game that doesn't freeze or have loading issues.
Thanks man
and I second that, but EA will keep producing and people will keep buying.
i have heard that EA didnt go looking to buy the right sat first, but that the nfl themselves were selling it to the highest bidder, which so happened to be EA
hmmm interesting…
i too have heard this and believe it to be true, they only wanted to deal with one company from my understanding…right one or wrong one is debateable
When is Madden going to get good again?! I stopped buying it because every year has felt disappointing. The announcing sucks and the game play feels robotic. I actually am looking forward to that Back Breaker game that is kind of under the radar. It won't be real teams obviously but the game play looks amazingly realistic, definitely worth checking out if your not satisfied with Madden anymore. EA has just thrown in a couple new features each year to try and make it seem like something new, and to me, it sucks! Props on NHL 09 though, I love that damn game!