Deathknell for ESPN NFL series

Today's news:

EA Enters into Exclusive Agreements with NFL and PLAYERS INC to Expand and Integrate Customer Entertainment Experience REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2004--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced exclusive licensing relationships with the National Football League and PLAYERS INC to develop, publish and distribute interactive football games. These five-year agreements -- which EA negotiated separately -- give EA the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums and players for use in its football videogames. Both agreements also include exclusive rights for console online features. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Boy, that just sucks. This year, the NFL game to play was Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5. It was, by far, the best football game ever made. To give you an idea, I bought Madden 2005 the day it came out, and it is still sitting in the original shrink-wrap because I couldn't manage to pull myself off of the ESPN game.

We'll have to see how this plays out, but it looks like EA is the only game in town. Maybe Sega will make a college game next year.