Bugger

Now, this is probably going to interest an even smaller subset of you than even my usual brand of rubbish, but here goes. Personally, I think this is really bad news.

I loved the Madden NFL games back on the old Sega MegaDrive (the Genesis, for you seppos), but since the Dreamcast came into my life, I've only had eyes for Sega's 2K (and latterly ESPN) series. But now they can't use real teams, player names, logos or anything that'll make their excellent football series any sort of representation of the NFL. Does this really matter? Sadly, yes. It'll hit them really hard, sales-wise, right at the time they were starting to make serious inroads into the sports gaming market. This'll leave EA with a virtual monopoly, which'll mean that competitive pricing goes out the window, and then innovation is bound to follow. Having ESPN snapping at their heels the last couple of years has really pushed the Madden series forward, and it's bound to stagnate if that pressure lets up, given EA's past form.

But mostly, I was really looking forward to the new ESPN NFL game. I loved the last one. And, living in Australia, the only taste of the NFL (my favourite sport) I get is through the yearly Superbowl, and sports videogames.

What's Sega to do? My advice: make a superb college football title, and try to cut EA's grass that way instead.