In its latest move to control the known gaming universe, EA signed an exclusivity deal to be the only provider of NFL-licensed football games for the next five years. I’ve never been that much of a fan of sports games, but the ramifications of this agreement reach far beyond the realm of casual gamers or sports enthusiasts. Although the bid was open to other publishers, they really didn’t have a chance versus EA’s marketing clout and extremely deep pockets.

In response to concerns about product quality, EA’s president of corporate communications Jeff Brown told GameSpot, “The onus is on EA to keep making a better game each year…that’s the hurdle you have to clear every year.” This is news to me, Mr. Brown. Just look at your track record for your other sports licenses that are still in competition – I mean what really gets changed each year that justifies the cost of another game? The worst part of this agreement is the precedent it sets for other sports licenses.

I’ll stop myself before this erupts into another EA bashing forum – both Walter and n0wak have already covered this most succintly.

Trying to stay positive, Midway has taken their Blitz series and completely ran with this turn of events. According to the press release, the NFL has always frowned upon NFL Blitz’s over-the-top and often crass representation of football, and without the restrictions of their NFL license are now welcome to do whatever they want – provided the players, teams and stadiums are entirely fictional. Of course, you could always go one step further into the realm of complete fantasy representations like Chaos League and Blood Bowl.

Interestingly enough, a deal that I thought had long since been processed is being blocked by some DICE shareholders. This procedure is not uncommon for the publisher of best selling games – Activision did the same with Infinity Ward last year – but the last thing this industry needs at such an early stage is to be suffocated under the weight of publisher conglomerates intent on making money, instead of fostering creativity.

a joke i’m dying to tell you