CFL Video Game Poll

Here's my idea, my friends seem to like it.I was suggesting that since Backbreaker failed to acquire the rights be the sole video game maker for the NFL, that instead of giving up they should think outside the box.What does Fifa do oh so well?Represent many soccer leagues and many many teams.So I got to thinking, what if Backbreaker were to acquire the video game rights to the CFL, AFL, IFL, etc. which in my opinion would be a pretty big market.This could very well put them in solid position to compete with Madden and should they win it out down the road, they could add on the rights to the NFL to their games as well.Just food for thought anyways.

That's a good idea, have like a worldwide football game.

Cuz it makes even less sense that there was an AFL game on PS2, now i really wanna know why there hasn't been at least one attempt at a CFL game. We have 10 million more people than Australia.

Also if i'm not mistaken, NFL's exclusive deal with Madden runs out in 4 years. NFL 2K5 was amazing. I'm really surprised 2K hasn't gotten on this, they have all the stuff just sitting there for a game, It would cost them nothing.

But Australians support the AFL far better than Canadians support the CFL.

Very true. I was watching a match last night and there were 75,000(!) people in the stadium. Even the bingo callers commented on the outstanding crowd. And unbelievably, I actually saw empty seats in the place.

I don’t think this diminishes the longevity of the CFL though, even if the crowds are smaller. Aussies don’t live next to a humongous culture machine that creates a tremendous vortex of distracting events. That the CFL has even managed to hold its own in such an environment is a testament to its high quality of entertainment for Canadians.

What's going to happen is that the CFL will simply be incorporated into the Madden franchise. I don't know if it'll be in a year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, but that's what will ultimately happen in all likelihood. And I believe it's closer to happening than some people figure.

Like others have suggested, they could make one actual game every so often, say every 2 years. But keep updating the rosters every week and every offseason UNTIL they make another game. I honestly do believe the CFL could make this happen. Video games are the most talked about things with people from at least 25 and under. Its the most significant marketing tool for teens and children, along with TV trailers for the certain game. One thing to do to make a conservative business decision is to make it a pre order only special. People would have to pre order to ENSURE they get it, along with sending only a few extra to put on selves and see where that takes them. Something thats effective is hearing that someone has something in life and they say its WICKED, and it not being overly available, which in this case, could result in more orders or demand more in store games, which could easily be made and shipped and received within a week or less.

sigh

Pre-order hype only works when you have enough of a marketing budget and existing following to create it. A CFL game has neither.

Doing a second manufacturing run is actually not cheap at all because the factories require minimum order sizes, so unless demand is large that's out. That's the whole reason why this works better as a digital distribution only game - you eliminate all those costs and raise margins. Plus, stores like Gamestop won't want to stock a niche game like this anyway (GS only carries a couple of copies of anything that isn't big name).

This is a much more complicated business then most of you apparently think.

I agree with you on the pre existing games in order to make pre order hype. But i do think with great advertising trialers and in game theatrics inculded. It could create substantial hype in Canada. I do know people would talk about it cause its different, whether its good or bad feedback relays itself to how the game looks in the trailers. An example for me is that i saw the Forza 4 trailer on TV a few times… I never really heard of it till recently (from the trailers) and i only played the first Gran Turismo. Since i have an xbox and GT isnt availbe for it. I REALLY want Forza, cause it looked SPECTACULAR, and its basically the same racing simulator as Gran Turismo. I feel like that could be comparable to seeing a CFL trailer, and a Madden trailer. I know Madden, and whats this… CFL? This looks amazing! Nothings more powerful than a 45-1min trailer for a video game.
The way i see it. For pre ordering to work, something would have to be announced months in advance to cause a stir, then trailers of the completed process for a month or two, then release. Which is typical for all the big games. Create a bunch of hype.

And a CFL game is not going to create that level of hype from marketing, because you don't have the budget required to make it look like Forza 4.

Yea but they can have bigger stadium than us, our field is massive people don’t realize how hard it would it be to build a 75,000 seat stadium. It basically would be the equivalant of a 95,000 seat NFL stadium which the only one that’s close is dallas and its way over that, the rest are maybe 80,000 tops.

Also Aussie Football attendance averaged 34,000, not much better than us, and we’ve averaged 30,000+ before, maybe it’s a bit less cuz they get those big 75,000 games but we can’t get more than 54,500 into BC place and it’s 75,000 at NFL size, or 80,000 under the old config for NFL size (just to put it into perspective). Olympic Stadium can’t seat more than 67,000, and Edmonton is 61,000. We still get almost as many people watching the grey cup as live in the entire country of Australia. We really should have a game instead of Afl i think.

A couple years ago there was a guy on here making a video game. He would show us the grafix he was creating and such. He went to cfl for the rights and they had no interest in it. So even the cfl sees no profit. Also madden 09 had a cfl fix you could d/l from a guy in Montreal. I have it. The cfl players and teams. but Nfl rules.

Our field size is not massive compared to Australian football. Quite the opposite. Theirs is almost as wide as ours is long, and the area is nearly double that of a CFL field. I don’t know how a 75,000 seat CFL stadium is the equivalent of a 95,000 seat NFL stadium anyway. I think it would be easier, because the fans are more spread out around the stadium so you wouldn’t need to build the seats as high.

I’m not sure why this matters, though. Aside from playoff games, what CFL team would make use of 75,000 seat stadium? BC Place, Commonwealth, and Skydome all have over 50,000 but the respective teams don’t usually have more than 40,000 for regular season games. The Als moved out of Olympic stadium because people weren’t going, and this year they didn’t even sell out their 25,000 seater on a regular basis. Ivor Wynne is a roughly 30,000 seat stadium, but the TiCats only sell that many seats on Labour Day against the Argos. McMahon’s capacity is around 36,000, but only averaged 30,000 this year. Winnipeg sold out a bunch of games this year, but that didn’t happen last year. The Roughriders have sold out their 30,000 seat stadium a lot in the last few years, but I have a hunch that selling 40 to 50,000 seats on a regular basis wouldn’t be as easy. The small average is not due to small capacity stadiums.

Furthermore, the small number of high capacity stadiums in Canada is not due to field size. It’s the lack of a reason to have them. Regular CFL attendance numbers don’t justify it, and there aren’t many compelling reasons to build stadiums that big other than for the CFL (ability to host international events is one other reason. Beyond that, I don’t see one). The net result of building them would be more empty seats and more angry taxpayers (not one team plays in a stadium that was not at least partially publicly funded, as far as I know), not more regular fans.

Also Aussie Football attendance averaged 34,000, not much better than us, and we've averaged 30,000+ before, maybe it's a bit less cuz they get those big 75,000 games but we can't get more than 54,500 into BC place and it's 75,000 at NFL size, or 80,000 under the old config for NFL size (just to put it into perspective). Olympic Stadium can't seat more than 67,000, and Edmonton is 61,000. We still get almost as many people watching the grey cup as live in the entire country of Australia. We really should have a game instead of Afl i think.
They've averaged 34,000, but they've also averaged higher than that. The ability of the AFL to host larger numbers than the CFL for playoff games doesn't have a huge effect on the average attendance, because there's only a small number of playoff games compared to regular season games. The AFL regular season average for 2011 was just below 35,000 (compare this to an almost 28,000 average for the 2001 CFL regular season), while regular season + playoffs was just below 36,500.

Averages don’t tell the whole story, anyway. Those averages were for a 22 game season with 17 teams and an 18 game post-season compared to an 18 game season with 8 teams and a 6 game post-season. So more people are coming out on average to see more teams play more games for the AFL than the CFL. Over 3 times more people went to an AFL game in 2011 than went a CFL game in the regular season.

There’s no way that the CFL should have a game instead of the AFL.

If it was a Madden quality game, sure. However given that I have doubts of any software developer apart from EA putting together a Football game as good as Madden, I'm going to say no.

What I'd much rather see, and I don't know why EA is reluctant to put it into Madden 10 is a CFL mode/CFL teams, and I refuse to buy the game until they do. They do it for the NHL series with KHL, ECHL and AHL teams. Adding a couple yards to the field and an if statement for singles/various rule changes is NOT a massive undertaking. The only reason I can't see putting it is as you'd have to recreate/code the player paths of the entire CFL playbook, from scratch, and I will acknowledge that would be a bit of a pain.

It dosent have to be EA Sports. Remember the NFL 2K series? There engine and graphics and overall game was arguably better in a lot of peoples perspectives than Madden. It featured more realistic gameplay and was ahead of Madden in a lot of ways. They could exceed what a Madden game could do

Should the Canadian Football League have its own football video game? Lets here your thoughts!

YUUUp

Congrats on starting the 100 th thread on CFL video game ! Everybody, obviously thinks this is a great idea. But the league needs to pursue this. EA sports is not interested, so cross that off the list! If you look back on past threads on this subject, you will see the stumbling points. I think it would make a killing in Canada and be great for the league. But nobody is stepping up !

I agree, beat it to death until it lives. How about using one of those social fundraising sites?