EA Sports in Negotiations to Acquire...

[Muskie]

exclusive rights to NCAA for video games. Read more here (http://kotaku.com/344490/rumor-2k9-college-hoops-canned-ea-seeks-ncaa-deal).

Not happy if this is the case. I enjoy the 2k series for college basketball. It's a nice little stress reliever.

[Svoboda]

Anytime an exclusive license is granted, it's never to the advantage of the consumer. Having multiple titles compete provides innovation and development in the series... same thing happened when the Madden franchise got the exclusive rights to the NFL.

[Billy]

Yea, this is definitely not good news. Especially, because in the case of EA, they have a history of "taking years off" and not steadily improving the way 2K usually does. That's what they did with Madden.

I guess these manufacturers are finding that paying for exclusivity is indeed the way to go. 2K still owns it for MLB I think.