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by
Joe - jgand@pcfootball.net
1-23-05
I
have a lot on my plate these days:
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I’m
currently trying to finish the Instigator season while
simultaneously re-vamping the Instigator website.
-
I’m
trying to continue my project of entering in all of the
real player names on all of the rosters for my “All-Time
Roster” project.
-
I’m
trying to keep up with my e-mail.
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I’m
trying to apply to as many market research sites as
possible so that I can answer surveys for money.
-
I’m
trying to keep up with the latest happenings in the gaming
world so that I can give you guys the latest news in the
forums.
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I’m
trying to keep the site up and going even though our host
has been having a lot of problems with Apache lately.
-
I
need to finish up my BCS playoff project (you won’t
believe the huge upset in the second round!).
-
I’m
trying to get my mind ready so that I can go to Disney
World on my 10th Wedding Anniversary which will
be like a second honeymoon for wifey and me.
-
I’m
trying to help wifey with her home business since it looks
like I may not be getting a job soon.
And
uh, oh yeah, there’s this little matter of a column that
I’ve been meaning to write…
Things
have been happening fast and furious over at EA Sports this
past few weeks. To recap…
1. EA Sports
and
the NFL reached an agreement on an exclusive license for the
NFL’s stadiums, players, logos and colors in Madden.
Predictably the makers of the 2K series cried foul as did many
gamers out there.
2. EA Sports also
reached an agreement with ESPN to be the sole licensee of the
ESPN brand in the area of sports games, which will include
console, handheld, PC, and wireless games.
To
hear everyone on the net tell it, this is tantamount to gaming
Armageddon.
Honestly,
I don’t know what everybody is so excited about. Sure, this
means the end of the 2K series, NFL Fever will not come back
and Midway is going to come out with Blitz: Playmakers in the
future. Pity that title won’t be available for the PC
however.
And
that is the reason why I am not getting so excited about what
EA is doing right now. Because as bad as some people may think
this is for the consumer, trust me, it could have been a lot
worse!
Think
about this for a moment; let’s just say for the sake of
argument that Take-Two won the rights to the exclusive NFL
license. What would that have meant? Well for starters, it
would have meant the end of the Madden series, much in the
same way that Papyrus bowed out of the NASCAR games when EA
announced they were getting into the market. It would have
meant that the best-selling and most-loved sports gaming
franchise would be no more. We would have had to buy only
ESPN’s NFL 2K whatever for years to come.
It
also would have meant that we PC gamers would have been shut
out of the equation entirely.
Now
everybody here knows by now how PC gamers have been treated by
some of the publishers that don’t happen to reside in
Redwood City
. We have been treated like the red-headed stepchild that no
one wants to see or hear from. We don’t matter to any of
these other software companies because they don’t believe
that there is a market for sports titles on the PC. So if
Take-Two had gotten the license, do you honestly think that
Sega would have put out NFL 2K6 for the PC?
Hell
no!
They
would not have put out a version of their game for the PC, and
we gamers who own them would be out of luck. We would have to
be content with playing our old copies of Madden 2005, 2004,
2002, and anything we could get to run successfully from the
FBPro series.
As
far as Sega is concerned, we do not matter. If we don’t own
a console then we should just go away and wait to die
miserable and alone.
Well,
maybe that’s a bit harsh, but that seems to be the attitude
that they have had for the past 5 or 6 years. If it wasn’t,
then why haven’t we seen a PC version of their games?
Because, unfortunately, we don’t buy enough of them. We are
outnumbered by players on the PS2, XBox and GameCube, and
sales of Madden on those platforms far outnumber PC sales.
In
the latest numbers released by the NPD group, Madden for the
PS2 sold 3.2 million units while sales for NFL 2K5 numbered
1.5 million for the PS2 and 1 million for the XBox.
With
numbers like that, how could we possibly convince Sega to port
NFL 2K6 over to the PC when they can make just as much money
on the consoles?
This
is why I am not gnashing my teeth nor am I rendering my
garments in howling protest over this deal. It is a good deal
for PC gamers, it means that we will still be able to play a
quality football game on our superior systems while the
console fanboys have to wait for the PS3, NeXtBox and the
Nintendo whatever to come out.
It
also means that we will not be limited to older versions of
Madden that won’t be supported anymore, or Maximum Football
whenever it is released.
In
fact, take a look at Maximum Football, because it may have
many features that we as gamers have not had since the days of
FBPro. The ability to create our own leagues, the ability to
create artwork, the ability to play with different rules, and
so on. Yeah I know, we can create artwork in Madden and Madden
2002 had the ability to create different leagues, but it just
wasn’t the same as it was in FBPro.
This
is a win-win for us PC gamers because we are still part of the
equation. If EA hadn’t gotten the license we would have been
screwed without getting kissed.
Now
as far as the ESPN part of the deal goes, I seriously doubt
that the price of Madden will go up dramatically just so that
they can cover their costs of doing business with the boys and
girls in
Bristol
. I don’t see Madden coming in at a $69.99 or $89.99 price
tag. I mean come on, who would pay that much for a football
game even if it is Madden? If they do charge that much there
had better be a lot more to the game than just eye candy and
Tony Bruno! If not, then there will be a large thud that will
be audible on both coasts as a record number of returns and
exchanges are made once people determine that the game is not
worth its price tag. What would that say to the rest of the
gaming world if that happened?
Honestly,
I think Tiburon, EA and ESPN are all smarter than that. Sure
they want to make a respectable amount of coin in this new
venture, but they don’t want to set themselves up for a big
failure in the end either. With the way the economy is now,
with so many of us out of work and not having a lot of
disposable income, it would behoove EA Sports to not price
themselves out of the market. In fact, look at what happened
when Sega sold NFL 2K5 for $19.95 this year: 2.5 million sales
for the PSD2 and XBox combined! Do ya think EA Sports learned
something from that?
A
thousand things have to happen between now and August /
September before we can all start worrying, and we are on
number eight.
I
am going to take a “wait and see” attitude with regards to
how this all shakes out. Because I know that if EA didn’t
get these deals, things could have been worse.
A
lot worse!
Until
next time…
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