Forbes Magazine has an article in its June 20, 2005 issue about the value that Electronic Arts has created in its EA Sports brand through exclusive licensing. It tells the story of the how they created Madden NFL 06, the edition of the Madden NFL game series for the forthcoming season, by inking an exclusive license with the NFL. EA Sports also has licenses with ESPN, the NBA, and FIFA, making it nearly impossible for a competitor to produce a legal video game about a major team sport at the professional level.

You may remember that I wrote an article about the EA Sports Platinum Series and how it does not provide the names of NFL and NHL players from the 1995 and 1996 seasons. These are the seasons for which the games on that controller are written. It's clear from this Forbes article that the omissions are all about the cost and difficulty of negotiating licenses.

I thought the Forbes article was really interesting and provided insight into a dimension of the sports, entertainment, and electronic industries that I had not understood up to now. [ Registration required to read articles on Forbes.com ]