Madden 26 is officially out, and while football fans will almost certainly flock to it in droves, it’s only a matter of time before the conversation about EA Sports’ licensing agreement with the NFL rears its head and becomes a focal point. Heck, even we covered it as part of our Not Another Roster Update Newsletter last month. For two decades, EA has held an exclusive license with the National Football League to create NFL-branded, simulation-style football games, effectively preventing other developers from creating a fully licensed competitor. But what is the status of this agreement? What are industry insiders saying about it? And what does this mean for football games moving forward?
EA’s Current Deal Is Almost Up, But Reports Suggest A New NFL Agreement Is Inevitable
The last time EA and the NFL inked an exclusive licensing agreement was back in 2020. Initially reported as a “multi-year deal,” it was later revealed that this new agreement would last through 2025. This means that after the end of this calendar/fiscal year, EA and the NFL’s current contract will have expired. On the surface, that may seem like good news to anyone who’s hoping for another NFL-licensed sim football game to hit the market.
However, that doesn’t seem to be completely likely.
According to Insider Gaming’s Mike Straw, sources have indicated that a new agreement to extend EA’s exclusive licensing agreement with the NFL is all but done and will likely be announced at the end of the year. This would effectively kill the prospect of there being another AAA NFL football game on the market any time soon.
At first glance, many sports gamers will read this news and immediately resort to anger at EA and the NFL for continuing to freeze out competitors from entering the market. However, it’s not as clear-cut as that.
EA Was Willing To Relinquish Its Exclusivity
EA and the NFL coming to terms on a new exclusive licensing agreement isn’t exactly surprising news. After all, regardless of what you think of the franchise, Madden is an extremely profitable series with a very large player base that’s expanding each year in terms of international appeal. So, bucking the status quo with that information might not make any kind of logistical sense to either party when it comes to negotiating a new deal.
However, there was a tiny bombshell that Mike from Insider Gaming revealed in his report: EA was willing to relinquish its exclusivity when it came to a new deal.
Licensing isn’t cheap. As Chase mentioned in the newsletter last month, EA learned a few years ago that it didn’t need FIFA to license its soccer series, especially after the latter tried to renegotiate for a staggering $1 billion once it caught wind of EA’s Ultimate Team cash machine. Here’s the thing: Outside of the World Cup and maybe one or two other competitions that people hardly notice, the FIFA licensing didn’t really bring anything that EA needed — all clubs and leagues around the world are privately-owned entities who negotiate with EA separately. The only thing the FIFA licensing brought was brand recognition.
The NFL is different. It comes as a package deal with the NFL Players’ Association, which controls likeness deals for the players. So there is really no way to get NFL teams or players into a game separately with the NFL’s consent.
When bundled together, the NFL and NFLPA licenses are likely very expensive. And in order to save money, EA was willing to drop exclusivity from the deal. But the NFL values its brand above all else, so exclusivity is baked into its deal. And Madden is one of the most profitable games, which makes it extremely important for both the NFL and EA.
I know I’m doing a really crappy job at explaining it, so let me provide you with an example of a hypothetical conversation between EA and the NFL:
EA Employee: Hey, man!
NFL Employee: Hey, man!
EA Employee: So we were looking at the books, and we’ve determined that despite Madden being extremely profitable and a huge part of our yearly portfolio, we can save a bit of money by dropping the exclusivity from our agreement. What do you say?
NFL Employee: Unfortunately, we here at the NFL take our brand very seriously and want to have complete control over how it’s represented across the board. If you’re unwilling to have exclusive simulation rights to our video game, we might have to negotiate with other publishers for exclusive rights.
EA Employee: Nevermind! Forget I said anything, big guy. See you in September!
The bottom line: The NFL isn’t ditching exclusivity because it wants to have control over how it is represented in video game form. Having multiple companies making NFL games would require way more oversight than the NFL is willing to provide. Remember when NFL 2K5 was released at a consumer-friendly $20 price point all those years ago? Yeah, the NFL was kind of pissed at that.
If you’re angry about that, that’s fine. But don’t be mad at EA for it.
2K Then Isn’t 2K Now
Prior to the first exclusive licensing agreement between the NFL and EA, NFL 2K was the biggest contender to the Madden throne. The series’ swan song — NFL 2K5 — is still regarded as one of, if not the, best sports games ever made to this day.
There seems to be this belief amongst sports gamers that if the EA-NFL marriage ended tomorrow, we’d be transported to a beautiful new world where all is right, NFL 2K comes back, and both series benefit from the competition. I hate to crap all over that idea (because I do think competition is good), but have you seen 2K Sports recently?
The economics of the video game industry have completely changed since 2004, the last time 2K Sports attempted to create a simulation football game. Video games are big business now, where profits and revenues are the priority. It’s not about the love of the game anymore. Yeah, developers still care about making good games. But publishers? So long as the thing sells, they’re cool.
In fact, the corporate structure is entirely different now. When NFL 2K5 was developed, Visual Concepts was owned by Sega. Since then, Visual Concepts was sold to Take-Two Interactive and folded into 2K Sports.
Does 2K still make good sports games? Sorta. I personally think NBA 2K is a solid sports series, but it’s also a microtransaction-laden money pit that is monetized to no end. If you think 2K would re-enter the NFL market and not take the same profit-first strategy that EA is synonymous with, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
EA and the NFL aren’t breaking up anytime soon. And even if they did, things wouldn’t be as perfect as you think.
