There’s nothing hotter in American sports than the NFL, and no matter how much the PS4 vs Xbox One debate gets covered, there’s nothing hotter in gaming than mobile. Any combination of the two seems like a marketing match made in heaven. That’s the logic of NFL Players Inc., at any rate.
NFL Players Inc. has unveiled a “Mobile Madness Challenge” to all mobile-game developers. The concept is simple: win the challenge and win an NFL Players Inc. license, $10,000 toward a social-media campaign and an NFL player endorsement.
It’s that last bit that’s probably most intriguing.
The competition was first announced at the Game Developers Conference in late March and runs through April 20. The game-development challenge is open to everyone, from independent developers to established gaming studios. Can you imagine a Flappy Bird clone featuring Colin Kaepernick? If so, then get your coding friends together to create Flappy Kap and get cracking!
NFL Players Inc., is the licensing and marketing arm of the NFL Players Association. The group launched the NFL Players Inc. Mobile Madness Challenge with the intent of inspiring unique designs for mobile gaming concept featuring active NFL players.
Three finalists will be chosen to pitch their concept to NFL Players Inc.’s executive team. The winner will be granted a license issued by NFLPI for the 2014-15 NFL season, which would include various rights to NFLPI trademarks, as well as names, likenesses, uniform numbers, photographs, voices, replica signatures and biographical information of active players.
NFLPI also will award $10,000 in credit toward marketing the game via Activate, the group’s social media endorsement platform that allows active NFL players to promote the licensed product directly to their followers.
Competition entries will be judged on entertainment value, visual design, technology, controls, originality, and ability to effectively market the game, among other factors. Participants can download the submission form at this page, and all materials should be e-mailed to thechallenge@nflplayers.com.