As far as sports games go, for the past decade EA Sports has led the pack. Any gamer on any given day has quoted the now famous phrase that has opened their games back to the SNES days. “It’s in the Game”
The last year has brought on competition in the realm of video game football between EA Sports Madden and the ESPN 2K series. Though at face value these games were very similar the differences remain. ESPN offered more of a 'Sims' feel to your team with custom ability in non football areas, where as Madden was a very true Football sim. However the largest difference, ESPN was half the price from Madden’s.
Sales showed that EA Sports were starting to loose the position of top dog in the video game industry. And like most companies faced with the dilemma of coming up short of a superior product, they bought the rights to be the exclusive distributor of the NFL franchise and its players for video games.
Though I found this disturbing and kind of cheap, I did mark it up as a strategic maneuver. Granted for the next five years the name Madden and Video Game football will be synonymous, but how is that different from now. People don’t say, “Want to play some football?” It’s “Lets sneak in some Madden before I have to do something of value in the day.”
However this week, EA sports also purchased the gaming rights for College football. So now EA Sports has grown to spread their empire across to the collegiate level (by the way, college football is when they play for the game and not money, hoping to one day play for the money)
Though I’ve never been a fan of college football for several reasons, I find this maneuver by EA Sports to confuse and worry me. Granted EA puts out a quality product, but what will be the future of sports gaming. Will my FIFA franchise be safe? Will EA sports capitalize on non sports gaming franchises, such as Ford? Will EA Sports be the only ones allowed to feature a Ford car in their games? I don’t believe EA Sports in anyway will be the downfall of video game sports or spread its empire to grasp and choke the gaming industry, but I am intrigued on what will be next. EA Sports! It’s in the Exclusive Rights!
