Thinking About Buying A New NFL Game Not Made By EA Sports? Well You Are Shit Out Of Luck For At Least The Next 5 Years!
Advertisement
NFL- Today, Electronic Arts, the National Football League and NFL Players Association announced a multi-year renewal to their partnership, marking the biggest and widest-reaching interactive entertainment agreement in NFL history. Under the partnership, the EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL franchise will continue as the exclusive and authentic football simulation game, and EA SPORTS, the NFL and NFLPA will also create games in new genres, expanded esports programs, and additional entertainment experiences for fans across more platforms.
Lets see how video game players are reacting to this news!
RIP NFL2K, NFL Blitz, and any other video game that was hoping to wrap their mouths around that sweet, sweet NFL licensing teet now that EA Sports has the right to make Madden nothing but essentially $60 roster updates for the next 5 years if they see fit. Darren Rovell being the person who announced this story couldn't have been more fitting.
Now look, I've been a Madden guy forever. It changed the entire landscape of video games let alone football video games. There's a reason every single one of us could hear the EA Sports guy's voice in the thumbnail to this blog and there's a reason I went to Michael's, which is my least favorite place on the planet because of the awful potpourri smell inside along with the zillions of boring products for sale, to buy a shadow box for the greatest Christmas gift I have ever received.
I still remember opening that present and thinking I was reading the box wrong because I thought it was supposed to be Joe Montana Football. Instead what developed was a beautiful friendships between a video game franchise and a fat kid that was scared to talk to girls during his childhood and teenage years. Every year I would get the new Madden, no matter how little they changed the game, and play virtual seasons until the cartridge was worn out.
However, there is no denying the game has slipped up a bit over the years, which allowed NFL 2K to rise from the ashes to snag jussssst enough market share as a cheaper (and maybe better) game for EA Sports to open up their wallets and pay to kill competition in the video game industry.
Now if pro wrestling has taught me anything, and it has taught me pretty much everything I know in life, it's that competition is good for the fans. WCW raiding the WWF for talent and sparking the Monday Night Wars gave us things like the nWo, DX, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Sable's handprint painted bikini, and so much more. Madden not being forced to compete against another video game has given us stuff like this:
Advertisement
Yikes.
I'm not sure what EA can do to prove that they actually care what we think or will just wait for us to inevitably buy it because we are a slave to all things NFL. Maybe they can release a free updated version of last year's game with all the free agent signings and draft picks to get us through quarantine, bring back NCAA Football behind Coach Duggs’ success along with the NCAA likeness changes, or at least bring back the Madden ambulance.
But even if Madden 2021 is a breath of fresh air compared to the stale fart we've grown accustomed to, it's still hard for this to feel like anything but a huge L for football video games, no matter how much I love Madden.
I know this is still a huge bummer for a lot of people out there, so here is a gif of John Madden smoking a cigarette that will hopefully make you feel better because it always brings a smile to my face.
If that didn't work, here's the video of Greg Jennings putting the team on his back. If that doesn't raise your happiness level at least 1%, I hate to tell you that your soul is dead.
Advertisement
P.S. Never Forgive, Never Forget