With the acquisition of the NFL license by EA during the winter months, many gamers were pissed by it as their favorite sport in the videogame world had been relegated to just one publisher. Many talks of boycotts to teach EA a lesson to not try to start a "monopoly" in the sports videogame world. I'm not writing this to discuss this possible attempt at a monopoly since there are many loud views already on this subject that have been displayed already. The fact that a boycott is being attempted by many gamers brings up many faults in their logic.

To say that EA went to the NFL and bought the license right then and there is quite naive on how it all went down. In the spring of 2004, top NFL officials met at an off-site meeting to determine if they would make their license exclusive. They decided to go through with it and put the exclusive license up for bids, so the publishers had to bid on the license or risk missing out. EA was amongst as many as five publishers to bid on the license, probably along with Sega/Take Two, Sony, Midway, and Disney (from another article I've read). Imagine only being able to play NFL games on the PS2 and PSP because Sony got the exclusive license. My point is, it could have gone much worse than it did.

I support anyone's right to boycott any product or company they don't like, but if you're trying to send a message, do it right. You want to teach companies not to go this route? Teach them by not allowing either side to gain anything from you for it. If you're going to boycott EA, boycott the NFL along with them because it takes two to tango. They felt it was better for the fans to go exclusive with just one publisher, which they're very familiar with exclusivity with giving deals for sports clothing and sports drinks. Don't buy their products like jerseys, cards, clothing, or anything that the NFL endorses. Make them pay and teach them that as an NFL fan, you want choices when it comes to your NFL games.

Here's where the boycotting goes wrong. Not that long after the NFL deal was announced, Take Two announced their deal with MLB that gave them the exclusive third-party rights to the MLB license, effectively killing the very successful MVP Baseball franchise from EA Sports. Gamers seemed to rejoice that Take Two struck back, when it's not really any better than the EA license. The only way it wasn't as bad was the fact that the deal allowed first-party developers to continue with their MLB games. This kept 989's MLB series going and sparked Nintendo's Pennant Chase Baseball to be announced shortly after. This still shut out EA, Midway, the former Acclaim, and any other potential participants that were considering joining the fun. If you're so concerned with exclusivity, you should have been against this deal as well. No one company should be able to keep other developers from creating their own sports, especially those that were giving so much competition to the 2K Sports game.

So, along with boycotting EA and the NFL, add Take Two and MLB to that list. Yes, this does include Take Two's Rockstar Games, 2K Games, and their many other brands. No Grand Theft Auto, no Midnight Club Racing, no 2K Sports games, no games from Take Two period. Teach the MLB a lesson for even going this far with that licensing deal, buy no tickets, no merchandise, buy no pay-per-view packages of MLB games, nothing from them either. It's simple, don't be biased when it comes to sending this message. You want to send a message to companies to stop this exclusivity bull****? Go to the extreme and tolerate nothing.

There is that little license agreement with the NBA and publishers. Well, it really was the best of them all and really didn't tell any publisher to shut the **** up and get out. The simulation games, Live, NBA 2K, and Shootout will continue as normal, while the arcade games, Street and Ballers, will alternate every year. No company is shut out and the arcade games get alternated to keep them fresh each year and allow for the development teams to get more time to work on them. The NHL has no deal, and probably won't as they need the money and publicity after the lockout this past fall. I'm looking forward to seeing the league back in action, but the games haven't really been all that good over the past few years.

Other leagues with exclusivity agreements really aren't that bad with lack of good competition to push them. The NCAA Football, NASCAR, PGA, AFL, and others fall under this category and really don't factor in, though the same company has these licenses and has produced solid entries year in and year out after acquiring the licenses.

Okay now that the plan has been laid for you to follow for your boycotts, all you need to do is follow it through and stick to it. Boycott EA and the NFL along with Take Two and MLB. Go forth and enjoy your used copies of older sports games, just as long as you don't get it new. Feel free to discuss your new mission of equality amongst yourselves.