A new game "Joe Montana Football 16" is aiming to topple down Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) from the top spot of NFL-based video games.
For several years, EA's "Madden" franchise has been the favorite among gamers. However, the news that "Joe Montana Football 16" is about to release for the following football season caused an immediate decline the EA stock by almost 3 percent on March 17, 2015, based on a report by InvestorPlace.
The new game is currently being developed by the developer Unreal Engine 4, as announced by Joe Montana himself on his Twitter account. Montana posted a screenshot of the upcoming game, featuring the logo of the game developer and the new game logo at the bottom.
Attack of the Fan Boy reported that "Joe Montana Football 16" may be released as an unlicensed NFL game, since EA has an exclusive deal with the NFL to make NFL-based games. EA is also about to release "Madden 16" sometime in 2015. There are talks that Montana's game may feature fake or retired players and fictional teams, because EA is the only game developer that can officially include real-life NFL teams and players.
There were also rumors that "Joe Montana Football 16" may be exclusive for the Microsoft Xbox One. Other fans speculated that 2K Sports may be involved. More announcements regarding the game details are expected in the following weeks.
Regardless of the revelations to follow, EA is expected to battle it out to remain supreme in making American football games. Since 2004, EA has held the exclusive deal with the NFL, after it was threatened by 2K Sports, based on the same report by InvestorPlace. At that time, 2K released "NFL2K5", which became a huge success and hurting the sales of "Madden 2005".
TechnoBuffalo reported that the upcoming game might not cause a lot of damage to "Madden," but will likely spell positive things for the improvement of the latter. EA has been relaxing in the past years, in the comfort of its exclusive contract. "Joe Montana Football 16" may trigger EA to innovate and improve Madden as a response to the threat and its recent stock drop. It will be interesting to see how Unreal Engine 4 will compare to EA's Ignite engine.
If the gameplay is good enough, many gamers might settle for playing fictional or retired players from the NFL Players Association, which is a separate and different entity from the NFL and excluded from the "Madden" contract.