I am still trying to process what is going on here, as its clear that something major went down yesterday or over the weekend. Seemingly overnight, the direction of Huddle has changed, moving away from the action shots that have brought a welcome evolution to the app, back to the head shots that plagued last year.

Examining the Announcement

To be clear, I definitely think there is one likely reason this happened, and I am not happy we are at this point in the process. I feel like I have been spoiled with awesome cards and now have to go back to the previous unpleasant mug shot experience.

Basically, here is my guess. Huddle is not NFL licensed, only licensed by the NFLPA. This means that no NFL logos or team uniforms can be used. Even though they painstakingly went through each card to edit out the licensed material, obviously something needed further editing or some grievance was filed. It may have been the NFL, or it may have been one of the photographers. I doubt we will ever find out, but Im guessing this is likely what happened. As a result, the cards are no longer being sold.

What does this mean?

Well things are going to change, and I am going to spend a lot less money on this game knowing that the cards are no longer going to feature the action shots. Gameplay is one thing, but collecting digital cards is about the look as well. Head shots dont look good. I doubt I am in the minority on this one, and I bet huddle feels like they just got blown up. Business plans are likely scrapped, and that is never a good thing. You can still do SOME of the things you want, but limitations are severe compared to what they used to be.

What do we know?

At this point Huddle is saying that the AS cards are not being removed from the game, which is really good. They mentioned we can still trade and do everything we need to do with them as needed. They are just all out of the packs, and from what I am reading in the announcement, will likely never return.

What dont we know?

Pretty much everything at this point. As soon as there is more information, ill post it.

Ladies and gents, without question, Huddle took a big hit this morning, and my week of torture just got worse. Stay tuned for more.

Here is a link to the announcement itself, which contains a Q&A.