Game design History Beginnings of sports games

Sports gaming becomes big business

On 13 December 2004, Electronic Arts began a string of deals that granted exclusive rights to several prominent sports organizations, starting with the NFL.^[65] This was quickly followed with two deals in January 2005 securing rights to the AFL^[66] and ESPN licenses.^[67] This was a particularly hard blow to Sega, the previous holder of the ESPN license, who had already been affected by EA's NFL deal. As the market for football brands was being quickly taken by EA, Take-Two Interactive responded by contacting the Major League Baseball Players Associationand signing a deal that granted exclusive third-party major-league baseball rights;^[68] a deal not as restrictive, as first-party projects were still allowed. The NBA was then approached by several developers, but declined to enter into an exclusivity agreement, instead granting long-term licenses to Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Midway Games, Sony, and Atari.^[69] In April 2005, EA furthered its hold on American football licensing by securing rights to all NCAA brands.^[70]