Report: EA set to get exclusive NFL player rights?

[UPDATE] Well-respected sports-industry magazine says the game giant is close to a billion-dollar deal. However, ESPNvideogames.com reps claim to have debunked the story as false.
Two weeks ago, The Sports Business Journal, one of the most respected trade journals of the athletic entertainment business, revealed the identity of Madden NFL 2005 cover athlete Ray Lewis several days before EA Sports announced it.

Now it appears they might have broken one of biggest sports-licensing stories in the game industry's history.

The May 3 issue of the Journal contained a story with the headline "EA set to pay Players Inc. $1 billion." According to the article, Electronic Arts is in final negotiations with Players Inc., the NFL Players' Association marketing arm, to exclusively license all NFL player rights for the next four years. The Journal set the price tag of the deal at $250 million each year, which EA would pay Players Inc.; in other words, a literal billion-dollar contract.

Given the large sums reportedly at stake, the exclusivity of the EA/NLFPA deal would be almost certainly strict. If that turns out to be the case, no non-EA Sports game could license NFL player likenesses--an almost certainly fatal blow to the Madden series' rivals, such as ESPN NFL Football.

When provided with excerpts from the article by GameSpot, EA Sports representatives promised to pass them along to "someone who can answer your questions." As of press time, no official confirmation or denial of the EA/NLFPA negotiations had been given by EA.

While the The Sports Business Journal broke the story, it was, ironically, reprinted in the magazine ESPN. This prompted a moderator at ESPNvideogames.com to call the NFLPA. According to the moderator, NFLPA reps denied that anything other than "normal" licensing deals were in play. Attempts to contact the NFLPA directly were unsuccessful as of press time.

GameSpot will have more details on this developing story as they become available.

source: gamespot.com

I think its a bad move. Very bad move. Heres my reasoning.

Madden owns the football genre. Anyone disagree? i honestly dont think any nfl game comes close. Espn is a distant second in sales. So yea if they got the rights then those espn people would come to madden, but for a billion dollars?

i honestly think its not worth it to get espns audience. Money not well spent.

im waiting to see what owner mode has new to it i loved it last year

fuck EA. they just buy everything they need and then they can make whack-ass games anybody will buy nevertheless since there aint no other games out. fuck them.

fuck EA. they just buy everything they need and then they can make whack-ass games anybody will buy nevertheless since there aint no other games out. fuck them.

Your fucking joking ea makes some of the coolest games around. ill name tons.

NBA Live 2004 is in my opinion the best nba game around (espn had better graphics). Ask any football fan. Madden is thee best football game ever made.

Needfor speed underground is the best street racing game. I hate lord of the rings, but the lord of the rings game are sooo awesome. Just because they are the biggest game company doesnt mean they suck

im with waitin for the dj on this one, I own project gotham and espn basketball... and if EA takes finally over everything  it just sucks, since they will stick to one concept and wont make that great games either, cause they know everybody will buy their games anyway.

look at microsoft.

Games are a matter of taste. i thought project gotham racing sucks. its just taste.

but the thread is about madden. And does anyone disagree with me that Madden is the best nfl game ever?

i used to too, but i bought madden 2004 by a recommendation, and never looked back