According to The Sports Business Journal, Electronic Arts is attempting to purchase the exclusive rights to the NFL player names for its Madden football franchise. The deal is rumored to last for four years with a price tag of one billion dollars.

The Sega Sports/ESPN franchise, developed by Visual Concepts, is Madden’s closest competitor in the console gaming market. In the past they’ve trailed considerably in sales, but still manage to raise eyebrows amongst reviewers and game afficinados for their production and gameplay design. Personally, I think they’ve had a superior product since NFL2K.

Recently announced elements within their upcoming 2004 release, such as sports anchor reports, draft previews, game highlights, gameday training, online player trades etc, could have made Sega’s line strong enough to legitimately compete against EA’s established brand. Madden 2005 seems to have none of these features, but without player names ESPN football will be destined to flop.

A wonderful example of how big business can buy their way past innovation.