Topic: Madden 25 Not Coming to Wii U?

[Mop it up]

I'd rather have a new NFL Blitz or Mutant League Football, or see someone finally try a Mario Football. Of the gridiron kind, not soccer.

None of these things would happen regardless, sadly...

[Ceric]

The NFL and Nintendo legally couldn't do that. EA has a contract for the exclusive rights. EA could make it Xbox 360 exclusive, and it wouldn't matter. EA is the only company that can make a NFL game. The NFL tries to let Nintendo do it, and they would get sued by EA for breach of contract (and EA would win).

The NFL can be called many things but, they know how to make a contract.  If its no longer in the best interest of the NFL to be exclusive with EA I'm sure their is an escape clause of some sort that would allow them to pull out of the deal.

[TJ Spyke]

EA is very good with contracts too. It's a safe bet that the only escape clause for the NFL would be if EA released no NFL game at all in a calendar year. Not releasing a Wii U version would NOT let them do it.

[Ian Sane]

Since the NFL name is the truly valuable product I would assume that the NLF holds all the cards.  I don't think the NFL could start a competing game on the Wii U but they probably have enough sway to force EA to make a Wii U version if they want it.

In the end the deal expires and the NFL says "**** you, you neglected a platform for petty personal reasons, no more NFL licence for you" and EA is **** out of luck.  No one would give a flying **** if some other company had the exclusive NFL licence and the game didn't have "Madden" in the title.  If the NFL wants it on the Wii U, it's going on the Wii U and that's that.  And EA only has their Madden cash cow if the NFL wants them to.

[Mop it up]

There wasn't a Madden game on the 3DS in 2012 and I didn't see any other company able to release an NFL game.

[Louieturkey]

EA's NFL exclusivity ends this year.  So depending on what the NFL wants to do, a new game could be released by January of 2014, though I expect any new games to be ready in August of 2014 as long as the NFL doesn't renew the exclusivity agreement.

[NWR_insanolord]

I would be very surprised if they didn't renew the deal.

[Soren]

They will probably renew for a lower price. The market just isn't there for 2 or more licensed NFL games. Nor is it for any sports game right now.

[NWR_insanolord]

If EA really wanted to **** with Take Two they'd let the deal lapse. I really doubt 2K wants to put all the resources into rebooting the NFL 2K series, especially after failing so hard at baseball that they're just giving up, but they couldn't not give into the demands of the fans who still maintain 2K5 is the best football game ever made.