EA needs to be stop

GAMING Video Games
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EA and NFL ink exclusive licensing deal

Five-year agreement gives EA sole rights to the NFL, including teams, players, and stadiums; deal sure to reshape sports gaming.

Electronic Arts has signed the biggest sports free-agent on the market. In a devastating blow to competitors, the software giant has signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League and the NFL Players Inc., a subsidiary of the NFL Players Association. The deal is an exclusive five-year licensing deal granting EA the sole rights to the NFL’s teams, stadiums, and players.

The arrangement encompasses action simulation, arcade style, and manager games made for PCs, consoles, and handhelds, giving EA a firm hold on the football gaming market. The deal does not include titles for mobile phones or internet-based games, but does include online features of consoles. With next-generation consoles scheduled for release next holiday season, EA looks to handily dominate the professional football market for the duration of the license.

“We are excited about the opportunity to further enhance our relationship with the NFL and PLAYERS INC,” said Larry Probst, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Arts. “The five-year agreements will usher NFL fans through the console technology transition with new ideas and innovative game play experiences.”

EA’s current roster of NFL games includes the top-selling Madden franchise and the extreme football NFL Street franchise.

The deal is obviously bad news for EA’s competitors, particularly ESPN Videogames and Sega, who stole a respectable chunk of EA’s Madden football market with their NFL 2K series and it’s budget price tag this year of $19.99.

On trading nearly three times it usual amount, EA stock was up more than $3 today. The stock closed at $57.57, up $3.38 or 6.24 percent with 16,574,606 shares trading hands on the NASDAQ. In after hours trading, the stock at press time had jumped another $2.88 to trade at $60.45.

By Tim Surette – GameSpot
POSTED: 12/13/04 02:53 PM PST

This is fucking ridiculous. I havent bought an EA game since NFS III Hot Pursuit, and this is the reason why i have been boycotting them. I can’t believe they did this. I guess they got heat from fans actually switching to the 2k series because it is a BETTER FUCKING GAME, and instead of making their game better they just monopolize. Send EA hate mail please…

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Holy shit…HOLY SHIT

God damn EA…I just fell in love with the NFL 2k series, and now its come to this???

God back when the games first came out there was talk about this happening, but it was all rumors, but this is fucking real. Jesus christ man.

ESPN Videogames were just making leaps and bounds in their gameplay and presentation. This is a fucking pussy ass move by EA. Tiburon’s handling of the Madden series has been very very shoddy this generation…so their answer is, kill competition rather than make a better game. Good god…

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Ironic that ABC signed an exclusive agreement with John Madden so he will no longer be featured in any videogames. This could be a huge blow to their name recognition. Wonder what they will call the game next year.

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That has to be the biggest piece of bullshit that I’ve ever heard in my life. I always knew that EA was the Umbrella or the Rekall of video games, but I didn’t think they’d stoop that low. Fuck Electronic Arts. Fuck them up their stupid asses.

I only hope that they don’t do this with other sports leagues. That would mean EA’s swift and just destruction.

P.S.- This is my first post on the boards. Hi everyone.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by AimForTheHead86 That has to be the biggest piece of bullshit that I’ve ever heard in my life. I always knew that EA was the Umbrella or the Rekall of video games, but I didn’t think they’d stoop that low. Fuck Electronic Arts. Fuck them up their stupid asses. I only hope that they don’t do this with other sports leagues. That would mean EA’s swift and just destruction. P.S.- This is my first post on the boards. Hi everyone.

It’s costing them well over a billion dollars for this deal, I doubt they’ll throw that kind of money at other sports.

In fact, I’m curious to know exactly how much this deal is. I remember they offered the NFL a billion over 4 years, approx. 6 months ago, and the NFL said it wasn’t enough. What is 5 years worth then?

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didnt they have a problem with working condition

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When you think about it, that’s a pretty smart business move although you run the risk of lawsuits. Too bad for the game designers though, who’ll probably still be overworked if that class-action lawsuit doesn’t at least do something.

Quote:
Send EA hate mail please…

A bunch of mispelled, exclamation-ridden messages will get your e-mail a trip to the trashcan. Technically, if NFL 2K is the “best” than why is it that the Madden series continually outsells them? Both games are pretty much subjective to whoever plays them.

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ya EA has been having a ton of labor issues, which up until recently were only being discussed amongst EA employees. There is a lot of uncompensated overtime going into game production that is apparently getting out of hand.

EA is really becoming the new evil empire in the realm of gaming. It used to be microsoft, but now EA has really taken the cake with this move.

All I can say, is that I must own a video football game at least every 2 years, I hope that the next gen titles arent handled by tiburon anymore and EA rebuilds them from the ground up. Since they are so good at buying the competition, I wouldn’t mind if EA just bought visual concepts and combined the best of the 2k series with the best of the Madden series (that is a hard thing to find nowadays though).

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Doesn’t EA have a similar deal with FIFA (for soccer)?

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I’ve been saying for years to my friends that the 2k series was the best overall in terms of football. I dropped Madden the day the Dreamcast came out and I saw NFL 2K. I fell in love and never went back.

This just utterly pisses me off to no end. What the hell does ESPN/Sega do now with they’re NFL game? Just re-goddamn-diculus!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by T_Mike Technically, if NFL 2K is the “best” than why is it that the Madden series continually outsells them?

Because Average Joe Casual Gamer is a fucking retard who wouldn’t know good football if it kicked them in the teeth.

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As an objective video game football junkie I can honestly say the 2K series stomps all over fucking Madden in every department. This just sucks. I am very depressed right now. It’s football this time and what’s next basketball, hockey? Fucking bastards.

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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sega’s going to have to do arena football or something.

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Welcome to the Capitalist World of the George W. Bush Administration.

Corporations Rule, Monopolies Dominate, Government Turns its head.

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I see this as a desperate move on the part of EA. They knew that Madden was going downhill, and that Sega was primed to move into the #1 football spot. With the genius move of pricing their games at $19.99 this year, everyone tried out the Sega games knowing there wasn’t much to lose. Doing so, they realized that even if the gameplay wasn’t that much better than Madden (which it was) for $20 ESPN was easily the better buy. This is a really low move by EA, and I hope that it comes back to hurt them in the long run. There’s no reason to deny people any choice whatsoever just because you think someone has produced a better product than you. Just tip your hat to the other guy, and try and beat them next year. There will always be the Madden fanboys that will buy nothing except Madden. It’s not like they weren’t making money.

If anything, this just proves the laziness of EA that has been creeping into every game they’ve made over the last year or so. Just look at Rogue Agent. It was totally mediocre because they didn’t give a shit about making it good. Now they know they can make a shitty product for the next five years, not change anything about the game, and we have no choice at all. If we want to play football next year, we have to play EA’s game. What a crock of shit.

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I’m an EA fan and this just sickens me.

But on the other hand…ESPN CFL 2K6 anyone?

Anyone?

Edit: Me being an EA fan doesn’t mean I think Madden is better, I don’t really get into the football games much at all. When football is out…hockey is also out…and I’m a stereotypical Canadian who likes his hockey more.

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ya seriously, I love football, and I love football video games. I know a good SIM title when i see one, and that was NFL 2k5. Every game has their glitches, but as far as capturing the essence of the game, Sega outdid themselves this year.

I wouldnt be so pissed if Madden’s quality lived up to its own name. The name is now selling the game, and Tiburon has just been getting lazier and lazier, which may have something to do with how EA handles its game development, who knows. If madden were a competent game, I wouldnt feel as slighted by this move, but now they are taking away the better football game’s ability to exist!!! That is just underhanded.

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You guys don’t give EA enough credit. I’m not condoning this move, because like you I was a fan of the ESPN franchise, however, I think you’re a little quick to assume that just because of this EA is going to pump out shitty NFL games all of a sudden.

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Well, if ABC really does “own” the Madden name now, I suppose that means that EA can’t use it, like someone said above. I think (hope) that could end up hurting the game. As you said, Fazer, they’ve basically been selling on the Madden name for the last few years, making insignificant changes just so they could change the year.

The only good thing that can come of this is that EA makes a shitty game for the next five years, Sega turns it’s attention to making a really bad-ass NCAA game for a few years, and in ESPN NFL 2010 is the single greatest sports game EVER.

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Well they have the FIFA license exclusivity too. But that hasn’t stopped Konami to make the best game for the sport. I guess Sega can do something similar but since Madden is a huge franchise…

I don’t care about football games but it kind of worries me. What with EA buying Renderware wich is used in almost every game of this generation.