Monopoly

As some video game players here may know, Electronic Arts just signed a five year exclusivity deal with the NFL, meaning that no other company may make a console, PC, or handheld football game using NFL teams, players, stadiums, logos, etc., for the next five years. It is also believed the company is looking to do the same with the MLB and the NBA.

Although I do not even really play football video games, I relaize the way this proposed sports monopoly hurts consumers, not only in the wallet, but also with a lack of creativity and innovation which inevitably happens when real competition is absent. It angers me that EA is not only capable of weilding such a powerful hand in the software market, but also that the vast majority of video game consumers are ignorant of that. I will be extremely dissapointed if the MLB and NBA follow suit (especially since I DO like to play video game basketball). And it is very frustrating to see the beginnings of a Microsoft-esque power develop in an industry which I have so closely followed for so long, and has been relatively immune to this thus far.

December, 2004
10" x 15"
Pigma Archival Ink on 11" x 17" Bristol Board
Colored digitally on Adobe Photoshop
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