NFL Extending Exclusive License with EA Sports By One Year (PastaPadre)

[ram29jackson]

Exactly which unlicensed football game is a wildly successful one?

I never said there was one haha. I just said you dont need a license to make a good one. Madden has done well off image alone. just shows that the general public isnt that bright. i'm guilty of it too. It took me 4 years to realize how good 2k was. They made their first mistake, making their ad campaign look so ghetto. And even worse with 2k8. Games are games and these Maddens are just playable enough to tolerate but after 5 years when the tech is easily out there to improve the game and they play dumb this long...seems rather silly.
Thank God, NCAA is a couple steps above Madden at least.

[steelerfan]

You're absolutely right about NCAA being ahead of Madden. I have all but given up on Madden since the move to PS3.

I guess I just don't believe that a football game will have any viability or sustainability without licensing.

[JeffHCross]

If you approached it the right way, and were willing to make a long-term investment (in other words, not looking for success on the first go), an unlicensed football game could still be successful. Back in the Genesis days, on both the PC and consoles, there were plenty of games out there that had either the NFLPA license only, or none at all. And a fair amount of the games were successful, at least enough to generate sequels.

The problem today is that it costs so much to get a game to retail, it's a significant investment for not much return. Based on the reports I've seen, Backbreaker didn't even sell 100,000 copies on consoles. There's practically no way they recouped any significant amount of their investment with that kind of run.

[steelerfan]

Gamers expectations have changed significantly, IMO, since the Genesis. Back then, I would play any football game. Now, I'm not sure I would.

[morsdraconis]

Gamers expectations have changed significantly, IMO, since the Genesis. Back then, I would play any football game. Now, I'm not sure I would.

Absolutely, gamers' expectations have changed, but they've changed for the worse when it comes to the general public. They're always worried about what the game LOOKS like instead of how it plays (or, in the case of a football sim, how close to real football it is).

I didn't care that BackBreaker looked terrible (and it definitely did). That was the least of my concerns. My issue was how badly it played and how incredibly unlike real football it was. It felt like a slightly more realistic (but no where close to realistic enough) version of NFL Blitz. That was what immediately turned me away from the game (and prompted me to never even try the actual release of it).

But, Madden hasn't done much to really get it any closer to real life football either. At least NCAA has made strides, but I'm still constantly reminded of the fact that I'm playing an inferior football game while playing it.

I haven't felt like I was playing a real football game since probably Madden 07 for the PS2. Ever since then, it's been drastically downhill for me and the NCAA franchise over the past 2 years have been the only thing that I can even stand to play on a next gen console.