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Gamers were concerned over rumors that Electronic Arts (EA) had exclusive rights to the NHL after EA’s web page displayed the words “Exclusive License” for the not-yet-released NHL 06. The NHL is one of the few major sports leagues to still not have an exclusive agreement with a game corporation. In it’s company is the NBA, who has recently licensed with several companies again. Previously, EA gained exclusive rights to the NFL, NCAA football and NASCAR.
If EA were to gain exclusive rights to the NHL, you can say goodbye to Sony’s Gretzky NHL, Midway’s NHL Hitz and the biggest competition to EA’s NHL 06, 2K’s Sports, NHL 2K. EA denied the rumors and representatives remarked that the wording was an error. The web page has since rephrased the words to “Official License”. At least for now…
The NHL would not comment. Of course, licensing seems the least of their problems right now as the only NHL hockey we may see in 2006 is on our game consoles.