Chances Are...

I'm a true cynical.  I tend to see the worst possible outcome in any given situation as the most likely.  So when the news broke about EA buying the exclusive NFL and NFLPA license I naturally thought I wouldn't be playing a good football game for the rest of the decade.  So far, I've been right...but that may be changing. 

EA may have a stranglehold on the NFL license but that doesn't necessarily mean that all hope is lost.  Madden has steadily been becoming more buggy and less well reviewed with each iteration.  At least part of that (if not all of it) has to do with the fact that there is no competition to push them.  The thought in everyone's mind has always been that since the exclusive license deal there was no hope of another football game on the market that could compete head-to-head.  I disagree with that and it seems that the talented folks from 2K sports may disagree as well.

I have always felt that the 2k football series was better than Madden.  It played better, looked better, had a better running game (crucial to any true football sim), and had better control and feel to it.  If EA hadn't put them out of immediate business after 2K5 I think that they my have actually outsold Madden over the next couple of years.  Sure it's just wild conjecture but since that's all we have I'm going with it.  Unfortuanately EA did put a bullet to the chest of 2K but it made the fatal mistake of forgetting to also put one to the head. 

PSA Break * Remember to always double tap your enemy to ensure they're truely dead. * End of PSA

Rumors are milling about the industry about an unlicensed football game that is being released by the 2k folks next year to compete with Madden.  Now I'm not talking about a drug filled, violence and steroid simulator like Blitz: The League, but rather a true football sim just like Madden...only better.  Don't believe it?  Don't see any way it could succeed?  I beg to differ my friend and let me tell you why.  There is actually precedence for this kind of competition that rages to this day...Konami's unlicensed Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer vs. EA's licensed FIFA soccer.  The reason that it doesn't get a lot of notice here is because soccer isn't as popular in the US as it is, oh, everywhere else in the world!  2k could make an unlicensed football game and challenge Madden without paying licensing fees.  You may think this sounds ridiculous but it's not. 

Soccer is the biggest sport in Europe and is easily as loved as football is here in the US and Pro Evo is a huge success that has yearly iterations just like FIFA.  Being unlicensed means that they can't use the real life stars and teams but the game still sells.  Not only does it sell, but it has a huge devoted following.  It also pushes Madden in gameplay because many soccer fans feel that Pro Evo is actually a better soccer game from a gameplay standpoint than FIFA.  While EA is concerned with graphics, Konami focused on the gameplay and controls and won the hearts and dollars (or Euros) of fans.  They also take and expand every year on the rosters that they had from the previous year so you can actually follow a player through a career and become a fan of theirs even though they don't really exist. 

Pro Evo is a shining example of how to succeed in a huge sport without the support of a license.  I for one would happily buy a new 2k football title because I know that the gameplay would be great and I really don't care if I can play as my real life team.  I always like to do fantasy drafts (which you can't do in Madden from what I understand) and create my own players anyway so it wouldn't bother me.  It would have to have a fairly robust create-a-player engine, but that should be standard in any next-gen sports game now anyways.  I want a great football game and I don't care if it has a license.  Worst case scenario it would force EA to make a better Madden, or at least one that doesn't need a patch on release.