As technology has evolved, video game auteurs have opted for a hyperrealistic rendering of the subjects/participants of their games, including games modeled on real-world sports. Commercial viability for a video game no longer equates with the representation of a quarterback as a red LED dash, as it did in the days of Mattel/Coleco’s Electronic Quarterback. Today’s game designers and consumers demand a sports game experience that is as close to the real world, and real players, as possible. Consumers will pay more for a game that meets this objective and less for one that does not.
Game manufacturers have largely succeeded in delivering on this demand. For instance, a large number of professional league-licensed video games contain playable teams and characters whose names, images, statistics and even play abilities correspond with a great degree of accuracy to their real-world counterparts in the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. It would seem that everyone is a winner in this scenario: The gamers need never leave the basement for want of new sports titles; the leagues and players’ unions, which license the use of team and player names and likenesses on a collective basis, have a new and significant revenue stream for their respective constituencies; and the game companies have lucrative titles to offer year in and year out. But at least a handful of players are not happy with this situation.
