We launched the player creator on Steam a year before the game came out, so the fans had enough time to recreate every real player that you could think of.

That's... Genius. Evil genius, no less. Let your playerbase violate copyright so you don't have to.

I can't believe I've never thought of that.

Technically the content-sharing server is disributing infringing content, so the server operator needs to have a DMCA takedown policy in place, and respond to any requests to remove illegal content. It's still somewhat of a grey area, legally, but in the same category as YouTube/etc. IIRC, we opened a sister company in an Asian nation with a lax record on copyright enforcement and host the server from there, just in case :lol:

Not enough for a Madden style game, but yeah see there is always a way around it.

Even though with how much money the nfl has in Madden,
if you ever did create a quality game that got a large fan base, id bet you'd have a huge legal battle.
But I bet you could potentially make good money off it.

it looks like the madden i played years ago

That's because it is. All of the sports games are mostly "mods" of previous editions. Occasionally, every few years they make it again from scratch to take advantage of new technology, or at least do a overhaul. Sports games are cash-cows because hardcore fans will buy the new one every year - basically paying full price for a mod with updated player names and stats.

You can make unlicensed football games, but you can't make licensed NFL games now unless you're EA. I think they still have an exclusive license with the NFL.