*link withheld because it' s from a competing site*

Two weeks ago, The Sports Business Journal, one of the most respected trade journals of the athletic entertainment business, revealed the identity of Madden NFL 2005 cover athlete Ray Lewis several days before EA Sports announced it.

Now it appears they might have broken one of biggest sports-licensing stories in the game industry' s history.

The May 3 issue of the Journal contained a story with the headline " EA set to pay Players Inc. $1 billion." According to the article, Electronic Arts is in final negotiations with Players Inc., the NFL Players' Association marketing arm, to exclusively license all NFL player rights for the next four years. The Journal set the price tag of the deal at $250 million each year, which EA would pay Players Inc.; in other words, a literal billion-dollar contract.

Given the large sums reportedly at stake, the exclusivity of the EA/NLFPA deal would be almost certainly strict. If that turns out to be the case, no non-EA Sports game could license NFL player likenesses--an almost certainly fatal blow to the Madden series' rivals, such as ESPN NFL Football.

When provided with excerpts from the article by GameSpot, EA Sports representatives promised to pass them along to " someone who can answer your questions." As of press time, no official confirmation or denial of the EA/NLFPA negotiations had been given by EA.

While the The Sports Business Journal broke the story, it was, ironically, reprinted in the magazine ESPN. This prompted a moderator at ESPNvideogames.com to call the NFLPA. According to the moderator, NFLPA reps denied that anything other than " normal" licensing deals were in play. Attempts to contact the NFLPA directly were unsuccessful as of press time.

If this were to happen EA would be forever dead in my eyes...

Actually, you got that backwards. Everyone ELSE who makes football games would be dead.

And Madden 2004 rocked; the best installment yet. The changes in 2005, after reading them over, look to be AMAZING. They' ve vastly improved from the days when Sega sports were definitely better (NFL 2k vs. Madden 2000, for example), and if that' s the way it is, that' s the way it is.

As far as simulators go, I wouldn' t be disappointed. But it could suck for great arcade-style football games NOT made by EA...

And to think people hate on me because of my dislike for Tecmo...oh I can' t wait to see what happens in that thread at the VIP forums.

No, its just people hate EA. Because of things like this.

Yosh, you have yet to give a single good reason for hating Temco. You bash them for no reason, that' s why people get pissed.

As far as EA doing this, I don' t like EA and this isn' t helping any. Sega has and will always riegn in the football area this generation imo. Taking away Sega' s ability to use players is just gay. Btw, Sega already sined their cover guy. Can the NFL over through that contract? And since when did the NFL own it' s athletes. A company can' t own a person' s name and likeness. I' d like to see where in the players contract that it says " the NFL owns your sould and very being!" . This is bullsh*t. That NFL can' t sell something they don' t own. The only thing they can restrain the usage of is team names and such.

Madden 2004 is far superior to any Sega football installment of this generation. The Playmaker option alone is enough to win that battle; the full control offered with this mode on both offense and defense actually makes it feel like you' re a real quarterback. You can direct receivers to break off their route when scrambling outside the pocket, a running back can point out crucial blocks to teammates, and you can shift defenses any way you wish even after the play is chosen, depending on if you see something potentially dangerous on the other end of the ball.

NFL 2k and 2k1 were superior to Madden 2000, and it was close with Madden 2001, although I still think Sega won, if only be a very slim margin. But Madden 2004 is the best football game of this generation, and by a relatively large margin. This year' s ESPN Football is actually better than Sega' s last installment, and closer to Madden.

No... ESPN was better imo. Madden being better is just your opinion. I still think Madden is quite far behind Sega.

I' ve always hated exclusivity deals. I feel everything should be up for grabs and whoever can make a better version of something should win!


Sega has the best 3D wrestling engine on the market (Giant Gram 1 & 2) and if they had access to the WWE license, they would work wonders with it as opposed to the boring stuff Yukes and THQ put out.

Well, I' ve already read one bogus report on this. EA claiming the story was way off, and the NFLPA executives also claiming the story was false.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05/18/news_6098784.aspx

The story is bogus. It was just a rumor in the first place.

Rampage, neither ESPN or Sega has ever produced a sports title that is as realistic as Madden 2004. I know about football. I' ve played football. Madden is the closest to real life.

Whichever one you like more is subjective. I know plenty of people that like the Sega sports games more than EA' s. But even they have the intelligence to acknowledge that Madden is clearly superior when it comes to realism. They just believe the Sega games to be more fun. I understand that, of course. It' s all about entertainment in the first place.

Realism, doesn' t make it the better game. To be honest I even with all the control and such that' s in Madden it still doesn' t come off as being that real. Sure you played football, so have I. Madden just doesn' t come off as that realistic to me. I think they put too much effort into trying to make it real that they lost it' s entertainment value. Even with all that effort to make it realistic I still think it doesn' t come off as any more realistic than ESPN. You can attack me all you weant for that but I openly say it.I prefer Sega' s games much more. I have former die hard Madden fans that after playing both Madden 2004 and ESPN, they switched over too ESPN. It' s just more fun to play in their opinions and mine.

It makes it a better game if that' s what the developers are striving for; if it' s their primary goal. The primary goal of Madden is simulation.

You may find ESPN or Sega more fun, but I can' t help but spot the little things that, being a simulation purist, annoy me. In ESPN, it' s too easy to stick to only a play or two that works, and the defense never seems to catch on. If I don' t mix things up in Madden, I' m screwed. I played NFL 2k3 for two full seasons, and what kept bugging me the most is that I only needed one Pro Bowl guard, select a running play that goes in his direction, and gain 10 yards every time. Pro Bowl blockers are great, but there' s no way that' s happening in real life, even with a good offensive line around him.

There are people out there who are more hardcore football purists than either of us. These guys are NUTS. They' ll replay a down just to see if the tackling animation is physically correct. They' ll break down statistics using complex algebra equations to determine which player in the secondary will be best against receivers with quick bursts of speed. I know a group of these people, who go out of their way to play every football game ever created. Do you know which series they always come back to? The only one that they consider to be " realistically enriching" (their words)? It' s not Sega, and it' s not ESPN (although they will admit that the most recent ESPN is closer to Madden than any other game in the past).

Me, I don' t want to play football anymore without the Playmaker option. I feel like I' m back playing a typical, run-of-the-mill football game, rather than a true-to-life depiction of the sport. Playmaker allows you to play like the players play in real life, and partake of the actions and commands that actually happen on the field.

In the end, it' s all what you consider to be " fun." I have the most fun with the most realistic game (in the sports genre, anyway).

In all this Sega vs. EA sports talk you two forgot the most dominant sports brand comes from 989 Studios baybeeee!!!!

Sega has always had the far more realistic animations so I don' t see how you are using that to make Madden sound better. Also I love your arguement about how you only need one play. That' s far from the truth. I' ve completed two seasons in ESPN and it takes a lot of mixing up to stay ahead in the game. I remember the thread you had at TGIF where ytou picked out all the little problems with ESPN. When I played it I realized that it' s hard to believe that you even watched a trailer for the game(okay, that' s an exageration), but really most of your complaints simply aren' t true.

You might be addicted to the playmaker option, but others think firt person football is more realistic than that and may enjoy it more. Personally FPF is something I can only handle one game ever couple weeks. It' s fun but nerve racking as hell.

It comes down to taste. You love Madden, well more power to ya. I love Sega' s sport titles, and unless Madden does something drastic I don' t see that changing. ESPN 2005 already looks better than Madden 2005 imo. It' s going to be mazing as hell to see every single stat right down to the percentage of the hgame a person uses their speed burst button in a game before you even face them on Live.

Reason for hating Tecmo-I hate Itagaki...when he' s gone I' ll be all for Tecmo. He' s an incredible ass, as proven in his latest E3 escapade. I still haven' t decided which developer I hate the most...Itagaki or Lanning...it' s close.

Also, this whole ESPN vs Madden debate is getting really old, especially when the only people arguing are the same 2 damn people that argued about it in what seems years ago. I think it' s safe to say no one really cares what either of you think, because you are both biased. Play what you want to play, like what you want to like, but quit arguing about it.

And you can stay out of it

Er...good one, I guess...considering I' m NOT " in it" . Well, I guess if by " in it" you mean trying to get two biased video game players, one who admits it and the other that doesn' t, to just drop an issue that' s been argued on here before and with the same results. Just a show of virtual hands...who in here likes to listen to broken records?

So...considering that you hate Tecmo so much, that means you hate Ninja Gaiden too?

Actually he does hate it and claimed it sucked royally before he even played it just because he hates its creator.

Okay, do not turn this into another 2kx vs. Madden thread. If you want that, go to another, lesser forum, such as IGN. As for hating a game for its developer: that is just stupid.