A Very Sad Day for Gaming

[SALvation]

Today is a very sad day for gaming. It was announced that EA has bought the exclusive rights to all NFL games for the next 5 years. This means that no other company can make a video game with NFL logos, players or stadiums for any console until the year 2010. Regardless of whether you like the Madden games or not, this is unbelievable. EA has bought a monopoly and its scary what it could mean for gamers.

EA can charge whatever it wants for its Madden games now and also can implement a pay-to-play online model for its games. EA has no motivation to update or improve its Madden series as they will have no competition until the next decade. A very sad day for gamers.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041213/135991_1.html

Contact the emails here to complain about this:

Electronic Arts
Trudy Muller, 650-628-7323
tmuller@ea.com (tmuller@ea.com)
or
NFL
Brian McCarthy, 212-450-2069
McCarthyB@NFL.com (McCarthyB@NFL.com)
or
PLAYERS INC
Christy Moran, 202-496-2885
christy.moran@nflplayers.com (christy.moran@nflplayers.com)

[Slice]

Today is a very sad day for gaming. It was announced that EA has bought the exclusive rights to all NFL games for the next 5 years. This means that no other company can make a video game with NFL logos, players or stadiums for any console until the year 2010. Regardless of whether you like the Madden games or not, this is unbelievable. EA has bought a monopoly and its scary what it could mean for gamers.

EA can charge whatever it wants for its Madden games now and also can implement a pay-to-play online model for its games. EA has no motivation to update or improve its Madden series as they will have no competition until the next decade. A very sad day for gamers.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041213/135991_1.html

Contact the emails here to complain about this:

Electronic Arts
Trudy Muller, 650-628-7323
tmuller@ea.com (tmuller@ea.com)
or
NFL
Brian McCarthy, 212-450-2069
McCarthyB@NFL.com (McCarthyB@NFL.com)
or
PLAYERS INC
Christy Moran, 202-496-2885
christy.moran@nflplayers.com (christy.moran@nflplayers.com)
Let them try to charge what they want. The economy is about to take a major swing and they will be begging for people to play their games....

[Rivers]

Wow, I'm not really a sports game player but that isn't right at all I mean, no competition god I could only hope this doesn't happen with other types of games.

[solid snake295]

if they even try somthing with my racing games there will be hell to pay :mad:
they make pretty good hockey games but thats just being a prick taking over the rights to all NFL games.... am i allowed to say prick? haha

[SALvation]

Its rumored that they're already talking to the NBA and MLB about doing the same there.

[SoulReaver]

Its rumored that they're already talking to the NBA and MLB about doing the same there. Aw hell no, not the NBA. I want my ESPN!

[FUS1ON]

Expect the prices to go up because last year EA's Tiger Woods '04 was selling for $20US and now that they have an exclusive contract with the PGA, the price for Tiger Woods '05 is $40US.

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/244212.asp

I didn't see this thread when I posted in the Bargains section earlier today.

[EXEcution]

What kinda swing is the economy gonna take?
I've never been a fan of sports games, but its really not fair that other companies can use the NFL to promote their games.

[Ra\/en]

I just hope this dosent carry over to any other genres of games.. because it is the Compitition that keeps the games getting better and better!

[Mad Fox]

OOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOO It cant be true

I like Ea but I would prefer that not one company has exclusive rights to anything

[burnthewitch]

Of course this is EA's fault. Yeah, right. Email them and complain if you want to change absolutely nothing. NFL can do what they like with their property, intellectual or otherwise, and they just sold it all to the highest bidder. If you would want to complain about anything, then complain about NFL.

Sorry SAL, you write alot of good quality stuff here, but you are completely jumping the gun. If EA put in pay-to-play features and the forthcomming games are crap, then complain. As there is absolutely no proof of this happening (and p2p in a sports game is very unlikely).

EA have to be very careful with what they put out right now after the media maelstrom and general failure of Catwoman. EA are not my favorite company either, but in the past year or so many games with the EA stamp have surpassed expectations -- SSX 3 or Burnout 3 anyone?

Making games is such a big business now, EA just took an opportunity that was presented to them. Wait till the games come out until you start crying wolf.

[FUS1ON]

In Tiger Woods '04, if you wanted to play against your friends or other players you had 2 ways to go about it. (1) It's like every other multi-player game, if they knew your IP address and the time to connect, y'all could hookup or (2) EA has a Clubhouse feature that is kinda like a chat room that they charge you a monthly charge to get into. They don't mention this stuff on the EA website. :rolleyes:

I haven't bought TW '05 because of the price increase this year ($20 vs $49) and the lack of interest from my friends so I don't know how '05 is.

Ok back to Madden '05:
http://www.easports.com/easportspremiumpass/signup.jsp

The non-sponsored Premium Pass is available for a $19.99 membership fee and offers access to all the amazing features of the EA SPORTS Premium Pass. You may subscribe to the non-sponsored Premium Pass or cancel your membership to any Premium Pass product at any time during the season by visiting the "My Account" area on EASPORTS.com.

They offer a free (for now) Premium Pass, but I suspect it's limited and if you want the better features you have to pay $19.99 ... or at least that's the way I interpret it.

EA paid big bucks for the exclusive rights to be the only game company to be able to use the NFL logo and the right to be able to be the only game company that can use actual player's names in the games. They are going to recoup that cost from somewhere. Trust me, pay to play is coming in one form or another in the very near future.

[solid snake295]

In Tiger Woods '04, if you wanted to play against your friends or other players you had 2 ways to go about it. (1) It's like every other multi-player game, if they knew your IP address and the time to connect, y'all could hookup or (2) EA has a Clubhouse feature that is kinda like a chat room that they charge you a monthly charge to get into. They don't mention this stuff on the EA website. :rolleyes:

I haven't bought TW '05 because of the price increase this year ($20 vs $49) and the lack of interest from my friends so I don't know how '05 is.

Ok back to Madden '05:
http://www.easports.com/easportspremiumpass/signup.jsp


They offer a free (for now) Premium Pass, but I suspect it's limited and if you want the better features you have to pay $19.99 ... or at least that's the way I interpret it.

EA paid big bucks for the exclusive rights to be the only game company to be able to use the NFL logo and the right to be able to be the only game company that can use actual player's names in the games. They are going to recoup that cost from somewhere. Trust me, pay to play is coming in one form or another in the very near future.
i got tiger woods '05 for my dad for christmas, ill tell you how it is once i ... er umm, once he trys it out :P

[Caged Anger]

meh, it doesn't seem legal to be able to monopolize something like that. It is an economical disaster when a single compony owns exclusive rights to a product. Leads to poor software quality and inflation...may EA games R.I.P.

[Pure_Evil]

Look at the bright side



















At least it wasn't bought out by Croteam :D :wave: