With LeBron James announcing his decision to return to Cleveland, Friday would have been the perfect day for a bad-news dump. From Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana came on Friday some confusing news that ultimately could be very good news for the many football fans who have grown weary of the same-old Madden franchise.
Montana twice tweeted an image of himself in video-game form, wearing a uniform that doesn’t match the colors or logos of any current NFL team. The tweets each contained the hash tags “youvewaitedlongenough” and “joemontanafootball16.”
The tweets are being widely interpreted as a tease for a new generation of the old Joe Montana Football game from the Sega Genesis system. Because EA holds the exclusive license for NFL video games, it’s unlikely that a new version of the Joe Montana game would have NFL team names and logos and current player likenesses. Which means that, even if the game plays better than Madden, most fans won’t be inclined to buy it.
If the game is good enough, maybe the developer will be able to get the NFL’s attention. The league previously told PFT that the EA hammerlock lasts a couple more years. Perhaps a superior product will result in a partnership with the league that would make more money for everyone -- and that would make fans looking for an upgrade to the Madden game very, very happy.