What's Next on EA's List? The NBA?

While getting over the shock of today's announcement of Electronic Arts gaining the rights to all NFL videogames for what is effectively the duration of the next generation consoles' life cycles, a disturbing thought crossed my mind. What's next? Could the NBA be next on EA's shopping list? Taking control of the top two sports in the video game industry would give EA Sports a stranglehold on sports games as a whole. What will happen to Visual Concepts now that they can't produce an NFL-branded football game? What if they couldn't make an NBA game either?

I guess the bigger question is, would the NBA make such a deal? I've always viewed NBA Commissioner David Stern as a business savvy man, and thus, can't see him willingly entering into a deal that creates a monopoly for one company on such an important licensed product as video games. What's more, the NBA Live brand is not nearly as strong with basketball video gamers as the Madden brand is with NFL fans. But then again, the specifics of the Electronic Arts-NFL deal were not disclosed, so who knows what kind of money or concessions had to be made for such a sweeping contract. And it's also worth noting that the NBA, not long ago, signed a deal with Reebok to be the exclusive manufacturer of "on-court apparel" which includes official jerseys and warmup gear. For the sake of consumers, I hope today's announcement doesn't set off a domino effect with the other major American sports leagues.

As for what Visual Concepts does now, I hope they will restart their college football franchise. While NCAA Football 2005 was a great game, EA's certainly left the door open there for someone else to come and make a better game. Just call it "No B(C)S College Football 2K6," include a post-season playoff mode for Division 1-A into the game, and it'll sell like gangbusters!