The Fate of Tyrlon and other Dubious Things

I actually forgot to rant about this back when it happened a few weeks ago.  The NFL and EA renewed their exclusivity agreement for the creation of all NFL-related video games on basically every platform known to man.  The deal now runs through something like 2013 when it was set to expire in 2009.  Basically this means that EA can keep churning out the same old Madden game every year.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Madden is occasionally an ok game to play.  The problem is I really got hooked on the greatness known as “NFL 2k5″ that came out for my Xbox console that I had back then.  The gameplay and everything about the game was just really fun and I got many hours of good gameplay out of it.  The problem is, 2k Sports is not allowed to make any NFL licensed video games because EA has this exclusive license (EA  paid the most bribe to the NFL money mongers basically).  A lot of the Madden “fanboys” as avid fans of a particular game or console are often referred to as, will argue that Madden is better and the exclusive deal is great etc etc.  For my take, I think EA was running scared when 2k came out with a much better game than Madden back in 2005 and also priced it for $20!  They were seriously cutting into EA’s market share with a bold move that caused many people to try out their game and realize that it had more features and less bugs than EA.

2K is trying to make a come back with making a football game by doing a game with individually licensed “Legends” from the days of yore.  The game they came out with last year to try this, All-Pro 2k8 was a good start, but it will definitely take a few tries to get back in the thick of things and make a stellar game.  Also, it just isn’t the same playing as the Charlotte Wolverines or whatever other made up names they came up with.  Once they allow for full team name customization and player customization, we can all just make our own teams.  Teams that just might match pretty closely to certain NFL teams.  All-Pro included a pretty good decal system like Forza 2 so you could make your own jersey designs etc but they did not allow for full customization.  It was rumored that 2k did not do full customization so that they wouldn’t tick off the NFL in case they could get in when the license came up for renewal.  Now that that renewal has been snatched up by EA again, there is no real reason for 2k to not go with full out customization and let the fans create their own codes to generate whatever teams they want (you can share a unique code to other players online that lets them recreate your team’s jersey and color scheme instantly).

As the commentators in All-Pro 2k8 will sometimes say, “This isn’t the No Fun League anymore.”.  I salute healthy competition everywhere and hope that EA plows the NFL license into the ground while 2k makes higher quality games for lower prices.  At least 2K continually trounces EA with their NBA 2K franchise vs. NBA Live which is a travesty of a basketball game every year.

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