'Madden,' 'Blitz' Remain As Football Video Game Field Thins

As NFL teams gear up at training camp and the latest edition of Electronic Arts' monstrously successful "Madden" game works its way to stores this week, fans of video game football may notice that there's something a bit different about this
if this season.
"Madden" is still around, but none of the other NFL gridiron gaming regulars will appear on store shelves this year. There won't be a new "NFL GameDay" or an "NFL Fever." There won't be a new edition of the "NFL 2K" series, which sold more than 2 million copies last year and took a bite out of the traditional 80 percent share of the market held by "Madden." There also won't be another "NFL Blitz," though the game's makers have come up with a bold way to compensate, by crafting an edgy football league of their own — "Ron Mexico" urine-testing included — and making a game about it. But for your NFL fix, there will only be "Madden."Where did all the video game football go?Critics, publishers and fans pin the blame on "Madden" maker EA. Last December the company announced that it had secured the exclusive video game rights to NFL teams for the next five years, and shortly thereafter announced that it had struck a similar deal to lock up exclusive rights to players on NFL rosters. Fans of NFL games other than "Madden" cried penalty."The major reaction when EA announced their exclusive deal in December was, 'God, this is a huge loss, not just for sports games but for the industry in general,' " said Chris Phillips, a 20-year-old college sophomore in Detroit. Phillips, who is also an editor for video game site OCGN.com, said he has been a big fan of "Madden" and the "NFL 2K" series.Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, points out that exclusive deals are actually the norm in video games. No one thinks it's strange that only one company has the rights to make games about Tony Hawk or James Bond, he said. The fact that multiple companies could make NFL games or can still make NBA games is the exception. Still, he agreed that there was reason for concern. "I think it's inevitable that it will affect the quality of football games," he said. "Innovation is driven by competition."The move by EA last December meant that competing developers would have to think outside the NFL end zone and go with plan B. What fans of the "2K" series didn't know then is that their series, which routinely stacked up to "Madden" critically, if not commercially, had no plan B for 2005. "I am truly bummed that it's gone," Phillips said. Phillips added that he had been especially impressed with how "2K" made virtual football resemble broadcasts of the real thing. Now the series is on ice."2K" publisher Take Two Interactive declined to comment about its company's football future, but it has retained the services of Visual Concepts, the development studio behind the football franchise. The developer is rumored to be working on a football game that will star retired NFL legends, but if Take Two proceeds with such a game, it will not come out this NFL season.The first company to actually announce a survival strategy wasn't Take Two but Midway, publishers of the over-the-top "NFL Blitz." The day after EA's announcement, Midway announced that it had already decided to drop the NFL license and was taking its all-ages franchise into M-rated territory with a game that explores the dark side of pro football. (Midway is owned by Sumner Redstone, who also runs Viacom, the parent company of MTV.)Midway initially dubbed their new game "Blitz: Playmakers," a play off a then recently canceled ESPN show called "Playmakers," which also depicted football's seedier aspects. Now set for October release, the game has been renamed "Blitz: The League."Executive producer Mike Bilder, who has worked on "Blitz" games for five years, said he had been itching to put things in a football game that the NFL hasn't allowed. "Over the years the NFL has gotten more and more restrictive with what we could put in the product," he said. The old "NFL Blitz" had been a franchise defined by gravity-defying tackles that resembled pro-wrestling finishing moves. The team would create numerous brutal tackles, but then an NFL representative would review the moves. "They would inevitably nix about a third of them," he said.Bilder's team decided they could have more fun working with a league of their own. Midway brought in Peter Egan, a writer on ESPN's "Playmakers," to help craft a story about an edgy football league. While sports games usually skip story, Egan's narrative would actually propel a player through the season. "What we wanted to do was give the player the gritty, realistic experience they're looking for," said Egan. That means gamers playing "Blitz" will encounter dirty players, drug use, groupies and other less-than-Sunday-best aspects of pro football. If a member of the team is injured, players can choose to shoot him up with painkillers. Players can allow their team to train with supplements, buy clean urine to pass drug tests, bet on their own team's games to earn money — and face the financial and legal consequences of getting caught. Meanwhile, they'll face down a leg-breaking opposing lineman named Quentin Sands, who is colorfully voiced by NFL legend Lawrence Taylor. As a sign that they're having some fun with the NFL, the quarterback of the game's Atlanta Redhawks will be named Ron Mexico, the alleged alias of the Falcons' QB Michael Vick.Midway wasn't the only football developer looking to take its series in a grittier direction this year. After the EA exclusivity deal nixed the prospects of another "NFL GameDay," that franchise's caretaker, Sony, announced a new pigskin game called "Road to Sunday." Sony representatives had promised a non-NFL football game that included elements borrowed from fighting games and a story that involved Jamaican drug lords. Last month Sony canceled the game, with company representatives saying the game was simply not coming together.Also not making the dance this year is Microsoft's "NFL Fever," though the series was actually cut in early 2004, prior to the EA announcement. Microsoft representatives cited quality concerns.At this point, Pachter said, don't expect any new publishers to start making football games. Publisher Ubisoft, which produces the "Splinter Cell" and "Prince of Persia" games and is making a foray into basketball with a game based on the "And1" streetball scene later this year, was exploring the possibility of making football games last year, according to a source who discussed the plans with the company. But the company hasn't announced any plans for 2005.So for now, "Madden" and "Blitz" are gamers' football options. Will it be Michael Vick or Ron Mexico? Take your pick.

Stephen Totilo
EA Sports