Midway Developing Mature-Rated Football Video Game

Midway Developing Mature-Rated Football Video Game

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4768-2004Dec16.html?sub=AR

Reuters
Thursday, December 16, 2004; 12:55 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Midway Games Inc. plans to publish a "mature"-rated pro football video game with the kinds of violence and excess shunned by the National Football League, the company said on Thursday.

The game, called "Blitz: Playmakers," is being designed with the help of a writer from the now-canceled ESPN series "Playmakers," which the NFL condemned for its behind-the-scenes portraits of player drug use and mayhem.

Since the NFL granted an exclusive license to video games rival Electronic Arts Inc., Midway said, it can create its own football game that stretches the limits of what video game players have seen before from sports titles.

"No longer bound to the NFL license, there will be no league restrictions on content and gamers will finally experience what makes playing a football video game really fun: off-field controversies, dirty hits, excessive celebrations and much more," Midway marketing chief Steve Allison said in a statement.

"Blitz: Playmakers," featuring a fictional league and fictional teams and players, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2005, a Midway spokesman said.

On Monday, EA, the NFL and the marketing arm of its players' union announced a five-year deal that gives EA the exclusive right to NFL player names and likenesses, team names and colors, and stadiums.

The deal came after EA's "Madden NFL" pro football game franchise faced its first serious challenge in years, from the "ESPN NFL 2K5" game from Sega Sammy Holdings and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

By pricing their game at $20 as against $50 for "Madden," Sega and Take-Two were able to garner a market share of about 40 percent this year on a units-sold basis, far better than ever before. In response, EA cut its prices on sports games sharply, which helped "Madden" sales last month.

Midway previously held an NFL license, though it did not produce a football game this year. Its "Blitz" franchise was long the edgiest of all the NFL-licensed games, though the last version sold poorly after the league cracked down on Midway and the company toned the game down.