Backbreaker

[jyoung]

Official Trailer

NaturalMotion today announced Backbreaker, the first football game to feature non-canned, fully interactive tackles. Using the euphoria engine (also found in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV and Star Wars: Force Unleashed games), Backbreaker features on-the-field football action with tackles that are different every time.

IGN has a pretty decent preview up.

The game isn't due out until next year (for 360 and PS3), so they still have a lot of time to get it done. Should be interesting to see what they come up with.

[Dyne]

wasnt this announced some time ago?

[jyoung]

Yep, IGN just made a bunch of updates to their video section, though, along with some new developer diaries.

[kingoffighters]

They need to work with 2K sports and put that in APF 2K9 and we will have a winner.

[Frogacuda]

When's the NFL license open up again?

[jyoung]

It'll be open in time for the wave of 2010 games (which would be about fall 2009, in real life).

The NFL has said that they don't want to pursue another exclusive deal when the current one expires, so expect to see NFL 2K10 (and possibly, NFL games from other competitors) in another two years.

[Dyne]

EA will devour it again before 2010.

[jyoung]

Unlikely.

The NFL's current stance is that they will not renew EA's contract, because the NFL's realized that they actually make more money by having an open market for NFL video games than they do by handing it to a single developer.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/18/an...-may-continue/

EA Sports titles are trending down in sales, with juggernaut Madden '08 selling 100,000 less copies this year (5% drop) and NCAA Football '08 seeing a 17% drop; furthermore, compared to previous years, the average selling price declines of these games accelerated.

Patel says that the underperformance of EA Sports titles represent two major issues: That an exclusive sports franchise is diminishing year after year, and whether future iterations can compete in a competitive market with many AAA titles available. He gives EA a "SELL" rating as its industry leadership is challenged along with the quality of its titles. We humbly present as anecdotal evidence: When the guys at this blogger's ultra-blue-collar barber shop spend the last three visits complaining about the quality of Madden games, that's definitely a sign straight from the "key demographic.

[YellerDog]

Nice to see Natural Motion putting their ragdoll tech to work for 'em.

One of my 3D buddies was going nuts about one of their physics engines back at Siggraph a few years ago.

[EvilMog]

Looks great. But we all know how those Madden next gen concept videos looked too. I would be refreshing to have a new football engine on the market. I know some of you love All Pro but even that felt stale to me.