Over the past 15 years, EA Sports have been the only video-game company to have rights to the NFL, but they will now have some competition once again. Early Tuesday morning, the NFL announced a deal with 2K to produce video games in the future.

Back in 2005, EA Sports made an agreement with the NFL to have sole rights to the players in the NFL. However, that is subject to change with 2K preparing to make football games again. The NFL's senior vice president of consumer products, Joe Ruggiero, made an official statement on Tuesday.

“Expanding the NFL’s presence in the world of gaming has become a focus for the League as we look to grow the next generation of our fanbase and reviving our partnership with 2K was a natural step in that effort,” NFL senior vice president of consumer products Joe Ruggiero said in a statement. “2K is a worldwide leader in sports video games, with a proven track record of creating best-in-class and award-winning games and we look forward to sharing more about the projects we are working on with them in the future.”

The last NFL game that 2K created was “NFL 2K5” and it was widely a success. Even to this day, most fans believe NFL 2K5 was one of the best football video-games ever created.

Despite the new partnership, 2K will be creating ‘none-simulation football experiences' in their future games. Therefore, it's unlikely that they will create a game that is similar to the popular Madden franchise.

For years, fans have been longing for someone besides EA Sports to manufacture a football game. After waiting for 15 years, it appears that those fans will finally get their wish.