Even Tecmo Bowl had competition! (NFL Football)
Annually, the release of Madden signals the beginning of the fall season for video games and an onslaught of new titles. Madden definitely deserves to be called one of the “big” titles - many people own next-gen consoles for this game alone, and the game has been around in various forms for 20 years. The game is so big, many people (including me) believe that every football player to grace the cover will suffer the “Madden jinx” and have a horrible season in any given year (yet I still drafted Larry Fitzgerald…why!?).
By all accounts, this year’s Madden is as good as ever, with a metacritic score of 86 and IGN calling it “the best pure football video game experience in history” (hyperbole much?). So why am I refusing to pick this game up?
To sum it up: Where’s the competition? Ever since 2005, Madden has had a monopoly on the NFL, nobody can produce a football game using real NFL players except for EA. This resulted in two inevitable consequences: 1) There was no more choice in the market which led to 2) EA being able to keep prices for Madden high as long as they wanted to. There’s also no alternative for me to buy, and for my money, ESPN 2k5 was the better football game that year (the last year it was allowed). I think it’s ridiculous that Madden CAN’T have any competition, and I hate the concept and protest by not buying the game at all.
You can choose between Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. You can choose between NBA Live and NBA 2k10. You can choose between PES and FIFA. So why are you forced to buy Madden if you want to play football? Frankly, it disgusts me. Unfortunately, I know that one of these years, who knows when, I’ll end up caving and buying a Madden or football game again because I love football and because I am weak. It’ll probably coincide with whenever the Jets get good again – wait, actually, that means I’ll never buy Madden.
Anyway, I know I’m not the only one out there who feels this way, though we are the minority. PLEASE, NFL, let go of the exclusivity contract! Let freedom reign!
Am I the only one that played Winning Eleven?
oh. no wonder.
I hate Madden. I have since they forced out the competition by buying the exclusive license with the NFL. Their game is recycled year after year and I resent that they charge full price for it. I downloaded this year’s demo to see if it really made any progress and sure enough, it’s the same, floaty, choppy animation and gameplay that existed in Madden 2002.
My biggest concern is that by attaining the exclusive license, Madden has officially taken video game football backwards. It’s the innovation in gameplay that suffers when rival companies aren’t working on another game to compete with Madden. Consider that since ESPN NFL 2k5 (like you, the last football game I played and loved), no other ideas in how to do a football game other than the “Madden” way, other game companies may be so far behind that even if the did come out with a new game, it may not be as good. The developers of 2k5 have all probably moved on so the legacy of knowledge from that game is probably lost. I mean look at 2k Sports attempt at a football game without the license in All Pro Football 2k8. Not only did it not have the NFL license going for it, but it lost alot of what 2k5 got right. If EA retains the license for another 3 years, that’s another generation of innovation that is lost. That is the real reason why I’ve boycotted the Madden franchise and probably will never get to play a fun football game again.
You and like five million Europeans. That game is PES now if I’m not mistaken.