EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

August 6, 2009

Although EA's exclusive licensing deal with the NFL and NFL Players Association has outraged some gamers and even sparked a class-action lawsuit, it appears that, while negotiating with league, the game publishing giant neglected to wrap up the mobile device rights for NFL games.

By way of example, BitMob points out that Gameloft has released NFL 2010 this month for iPhone/iPod Touch. Screenshots for the $7.99 App Store download clearly show actual NFL team and player names. The game appears to be available for non-Apple phones as well.

It seems quite puzzling that EA would let development rights for any platform slip away, particularly for the popular Apple platforms.

-Doug Buffone, ECA intern

Posted in Apple Electronic Arts iPhone NFL NFLPA Sports

Comments

Re: EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

Submitted by Azhrarn on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 13:01.

To be honest, I doubt EA's negotiation team could have known that gaming on Mobile phone would take off as much as it has when this deal was negotiated (a number of years ago now, I presume).

They may have tried to secure exclusivity once it became apparent that it would become a popular platform, but by then the NFL may have been in negotiations with other parties for the mobile licenses.

Re: EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

Submitted by jedidethfreak on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 23:19.

Nobody takes iPhone gaming seriously, not even Apple. That's why the iStore is such a clusterfuck.

---

Freedom of speech means the freedom to say ANYTHING, so long as it is the truth. This does not exclude anything that might hurt someone's feelings.

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Re: EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

Submitted by Azhrarn on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 02:39.

Apple doesn't take anything seriously, which is why they still rely on security-through-obscurity for most of the MacOS side of things.
They mostly want you to pay the Apple-tax and then move along.
Or why they demand people sign an NDA to receive compensation for exploded iPods and so on.

However, while Apple may not take iPhone gaming seriously, a major publisher like EA is bound to do so, there's quite a bit of money to be made.
But I assume they don't re-negotiate their gaming licenses every year, so mobile phone platforms may simply have been left out of the original negotiations. Count on it that EA will have the exclusive license for mobile platforms as soon as their current agreement runs out though.

Re: EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

Submitted by killatia on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 12:16.

To be fair no one gives a damn about cell phone games.

http://www.magicinkgaming.com/

Re: EA's NFL Exclusive Does Not Include Mobile Games

Submitted by Skillz817 on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 11:29.

Too bad no one gives 2 shits about a mobile nfl game, just bring the NFL 2K series.

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