Or it will light a fire in EA to buy the NFL franchise rights for another couple of years. Maybe a whole decade!

They already had competition with Blitz: The League. They didn't make any positive changes because of that competitor so I doubt this will change anything in Madden.

You can't really say that, because Madden is a simulation, Blitz is an arcade-style version of football. The 2 were never really competitors. I think VC will create a simulation, much more than they would create an arcade-type game.

lol all it takes is things like calling the NY Giants the NY Big Men lol

Then make fake names for everybody.

@majortom1981,

Agreed. Konami has been doing the fake name thing for years with Winning Eleven, and I was wondering if 2k Sports could do the same.

"They already had competition with Blitz: The League. They didn't make any positive changes because of that competitor so I doubt this will change anything in Madden."

That's irrelevant to what 2K Sports did. When they outsold Madden like crazy in 2005 EA became frantic and that's when they snapped up the license. Blitz: The League wasn't a good game, thats a huge difference from what 2K Sports can put out. Very excited about this. This could be the first football game I buy since ESPN 2K5

Would it be wild to suggest that VC make this with editable rosters. I'm not saying that people should, but if VC made the abilities close enough in makeup to the actual players and some enterprising soul mapped these to real names, couldn't you end up with something that approximates madden, at least from the perspective of actual modern rosters?

It sounds way f'ing illegal for the guy making the updates, but I can't imagine VC would face any problems.

It might almost be more fun to have made up names. Also, maybe 2k could make a mutant football league. The could totally do what a real liscensed game can't. Fatalities on the field from hard hits. Rediculous celebrations after scoring. I mean as options of course. This is all coming from a person who follows college more then the nfl, so really I don't care. Also, if downloadable content is possible, maybe you could just download the rosters anyways, made by others or 2k themselves.

I'd just like to say ESPN NFL 2k5 had online leagues, Madden is still trying to figure that out

It would also be funny if they named the game "Better then Fat White Guy '07"

I've never quite understood why 2K sports didn't just go down the path treaded by all the old games including the old madden, sports talk football and so forth with just cities and numbers in the place of teams and players. Its not like the guys in madden even look like their real life counterparts. There was something more "hardcore" even about remembering that #34 was thurman thomas.

*sniff* It almost brings a tear to my eyes - maybe there really is a Santa Claus, because if this turns out to be true, this news would be one hell of a Christmas present.

I haven't bought a football game since 2K5. I've played the Madden demos and they are OK but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger. I nice $40 football game might do the trick.

@@@@@@ skimmilk

The average person would just buy Madden if they heard that the players weren't in the game. I still remember arguing with people over which was better and hearing ludacris statements like, "Well, Madden has a hit stick so it must be cooler"

No, Madden just overemphasises a basic gameplay feature in ESPN NFL 2K5

Why are people always complaining about things being taken out? Hasn't anyone considered that the new platforms are an opportunity to make a change? Why keep adding more and more to an old game instead of giving gamers something new? Maybe take things a new direction?

Fina-fuckin-ly

Yes! I will pre-order this game twice. Nay. Thrice!

I haven't been this excited for anything sports related since the day they invented Team Sex.

In fairness to EA, if you go back, you'll see that it was the NFL that wanted and exclusive agreement, so they went out and found the highest bidder. Why would EA not try to purchase it? If 2K had exclusive rights, everyone would be complaining about how they missed Madden, and how 2K had become complacent in their innovation. If you want to point the finger at someone, blame the NFL. They're the ones who were greedy, and wanted a giant exclusive contract, without thought about what it would do to product quality.

I'll buy it in sheer spite of EA. Let alone if it is any good.

Competition is good for all of us.

This wont work. If people didnt mind playing with out-of-date rosters, madden wouldnt sell like it does every year.

As shitty as their hockey and baseball has been since Sega sold to Take 2, I am not looking forward to this.

I have no faith in their "next-gen" sports titles. The only reason the basketball is "good" is due to the fact EAs is just "bad".

I think nba 2k7 is an excellent basketball game, best I've ever played. I, like rluzinsky, have not bought a football game since 2k5. They just nailed it perfectly with that title that whenever I play a new Madden, it just doesn't compare to what 2k did.

When I played the new Madden for the 360 I couldn't believe they didn't even have announcers for the game, just a man on the radio. 2k actually had guys that would comment on plays that happened 2 plays ago by saying "Lets go back to the last play."

So I have faith that 2k will embarrass EA once again.

2K5 was when Sega still had them. Seeing how boring the hockey and putrid the baseball was, I am nervous how the football will be handled.

If they use the 2K5 formula, then great. If they have the baseball route, I am scared.

Competition is good. I loved the 2K football games. They were much better than Madden. Actually, Madden hasn't changed that much since 2004.

NFL 2k for the dreamcast is still the greatest football game of all time. Who can deny that it was the most revolutionary football game of the past 7 years. It definitely sold a handsome amount of dreamcasts. Nothing touches it.

Hot damn, my prayers have been answered! This is turning out to be the best Christmas ever. Now if I can just find a Wii...

like rowdy said, if VC has editable rosters it would totally make this game for me. if it has the level of customization like the winning eleven series, we could definitely see a huge community behind the game where people would make authentic jerseys and roster updates. can't wait! EA is going down!

Man I can't wait, I haven't played a simulation football game (meaning I have played Blitz but I refuse to play Madden) since Espn 2K5. Can't wait for Visual Concepts to bring the innovation again, I wonder what they are gonna call it.

@playaj

Indeed, that game was the reason I bought a Dreamcast.

Madden's big INNOVATION for the next-gen? Gang tackling. Yeah, we who have played 2k football have had that for years and on "last-gen" consoles.

I do hope that they follow the same formula as the old 2k football because as EnigmaNemesis stated, it does make me a bit nervous now with sega out of it.

Yes Virgina there is a Santa Claus!

I too will buy the 2K games just to spite EA. The 360 version being the worst version of Madden released on ANY platform is just farking criminal!

The NFL should break the contract with EA citing "breach of contract" and start the bidding war all over again.

But then again, the NFL can SUCK IT too with keeping the NFL network exclusive to DirectTV so I hope they die in a fire as well.

I want more football on TV damnit!