Well, that's two things that surprised me tonight. The first was when I bought two games at Circuit City for the GameCube as presents, and the guy told me they were 2 for $30 unless the games rang up as cheaper, and then they'd go with the cheaper price. Somehow, I got two for $15.00
And now this...
Basically, I'm not going to say too much about it or how it will be challenged or anything like that. I don't really care. But I want to just give some food for thought:
Will Madden remain Madden next year? Rumors have been that EA was looking at or will have to look at rebranding the games soon, as Madden is getting up there in age and might not be the best face for the games next year. If there is only one football game in town, it might make sense to change the name now.
It seems that the agreement lets EA have more access to the NFL vaults (NFL films and so on). Will this change anything? NFL2K5 had those 25 NFL moments that you could play. Will the future expand on this?
Do you think Sega knew and just didn't bid enough? Since it has been pretty much established that there are only two "games in town," do you think that EA just snatched it from under their noses, or they were around when the deal was made? My random guess is that EA just outbid what Sega could've afforded for the license to make it exclusive. With no one else other than Sega bidding, I don't think that would've been as high as some people do.
What will ESPN do? If there was one group that had a right to sue, it might be ESPN as the exclusivity contract hurts their ability to sell the EPSN name and presentation style. Since Madden hasn't used it in the past, and I think it is safe to assume won't use it next year, ESPN won't get paid any money for their brand. I have no clue what Sega was paying them, but this definitely hurts the amount their license is worth to a company. At the same time, might ESPN work with EA on just the NFL title, or might they totally jump ship?
Just some things to ponder...