EA strikes again

I read some disturbing news today.  Apparently, EA Sports has extended their NFL licensing deal until 2012.  For those of you that don’t know, a few years ago EA Sports signed a deal with the NFL making them the sole distributors of video games that are NFL Player and Team licensed.  What this means is that EA Sports is the only company who can legally release a game that uses real Team names and Player names.

 I more or less never play sports games, and would never consider myself remotely close to what is known as a “Madden Gamer”, but this is just plain sour.  EA continues to further their reputation as the bastards of the gaming industry by extending this deal.  While I can understand why they are doing it from a financial standpoint, it is a perfect example of how the video game business has turned into a business like any other…most games are made to generate the maximum amount of revenue while not giving a single bit of care to artistic merit. 

 Granted, there is only so much artistic merit to be had in an American Football game, but this really is sad news…it would be nice if we didn’t have to wade through 15 crap titles just to find one good title.  EA continuing their monopoly on the American Football game market is only contributing to this problem.  EA should be drawn and quartered for a lot of the stuff they have pulled in the past, and this latest travesty only adds to the spectacle.