No More Madden??

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Credit to Fearme504 for origianlly finding this.

Madden no more? Is it mere Myth or very close to the truth?

Rumor has it that this year?s Madden NFL 2005 will be the last Madden ever. Upon hearing this, I thought it was ridiculous. Madden is the top selling football game ever. It would not make sense for EA to end a franchise as big as Madden.


I soon received some conformation on the rumor from inside sources at Sony, stating that John Madden?s contract with EA Sports ends this year and he maybe signing a contact with the ESPN Network. This is big news. ESPN NFL Football and Madden NFL Football are the two biggest sports competitors and rivals in the industry. Even though Madden out-sells Sega?s title every year, the past two years have shown Sega?s 2K3 and 2K4 have sneaked above Madden?s NFL 2003 and 2004 titles in ratings overall.

Well what does this mean? EA?s success in their football franchise has been largely helped by two factors: One, when it debuted on the PS2 years ago, it had virtually no competition. Their closest competitor was the start of the 2K series on the Dreamcast, which was drowned out by the success and embrase the PS2 received at launch. Sega?s 2K series therefore was deemed by many as the best sports series never played. Because Madden had no competition, everyone played it, and became used to the game play and enjoyed it.

The 2nd factor was its name. Everyone knew John Madden. John Madden?s NFL Football from the Sega Genesis was a hit title. The name helped it sell. So if Madden moves over to ESPN, that will definitely hurt the EA franchise and help propel Sega?s ESPN NFL Football series into the known spotlight.

The football game itself however will not end if the deal goes through. EA will give it another name and change up the presentation that is linked to Madden. So the game itself will stay in tact, only with a different face.

Only time will tell if the deal goes through. As we receive more confirmation on the situation, we will have it here for you.