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Did Backbreaker Just Get An NFL Licence?

Torsten Reil, the co-founder and CEO of NaturalMotion, on Sunday tweeted this picture which he says is from an iPhone version of Backbreaker: Vengeance, a spinoff of last year’s football game Backbreaker which challenged Madden NFL without any NFL branding. Reil’s picture shows someone for the Seattle Seahawks leaping over an Arizona Cardinals defender, in a stadium carrying NFL branding on its signs.

What’s going on? Madden NFL and EA Sports, quite notoriously, have the exclusive licence to develop NFL video games. But the licence only goes so far. It doesn’t cover browser-based games (which is how QuickHit became QuickHit NFL last year) and it doesn’t cover mobile games, which is how we saw NFL 2010 and NFL 2011 (but not NFL 2012).

Kotaku emailed Reil for further clarification, whether this means we’ll be seeing an NFL-branded Backbreaker and if so, when. Reil had not responded as of publication time although, around 1pm, he said “It’s something else, yes. Announcement very soon.”

Backbreaker to Get NFL License? [Operation Sports]

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(2 Comments)
  • [–]

    PsyKoMunKy

    Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Would be good if they did get the license.
    I still don’t understand the negativity people point at EA for the exclusivity – it is the NFL’s sole doing. They choose to have one licensee for all their marketing arms.

    Reply
  • [–]

    Braaains

    Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 1:14 PM

    They either just got a licence or they’re just about to get sued.

    Reply

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