Support NeoGAF

[Gaia Theory]

This move isn't surprising at all. EA wants to destroy their competition.

Perhaps we will see more international sports with different sponsors making an entry to videogames. Things like the already mentioned Hockey Night in Canada, or the CFL. I'm not too familiar with overseas licenses, nor am I into sports, but I hope that with EA's attempt to kill the competition, the competition gets smart and finds and carves their own niche for themselves.

Certainly if Sega wants to continue making sports titles, they'll have to be creative with who they sign with.

 

[fennec fox]

I don't think this was unavoidable and I bet it was due less to EA's actions and more to Sega/TT's willingness to let go. Does this simply mean TT has given up on a full range of sports brands and will pool its cash towards basketball or sommat?

 

[SantaC]

OH FUCK

time for middle america to take on a new sports pasttime. Log rolling

:lol

coming soon from challenge everything:

EA signs lifetime exclusive deal to be the alone creator of all future videogames.

 

[Link316]

They'll never give up the Madden name though. The name alone sells 1 million copies.

true, but EA has alot more leverage now when they go renew the Madden license cause they don't really need it anymore

 

[Kutaragi Hirai]

well it is a very expected move from EA...

Next Objective: Buying Eidos..... wait.. no .. i mean buying Capcom.

 

[imastalker co.]

oh, 2 crazy things to think about at this point.

imagine if EA bought Visual Concepts and put them in charage of their sports games.

the fact that EA has the power to make their own console, and very easily fuck up Sony and Microsofts shit at this point.

 

[Odnetnin]

oh, 2 crazy things to think about at this point.

imagine if EA bought Visual Concepts and put them in charage of their sports games.

the fact that EA has the power to make their own console, and very easily fuck up Sony and Microsofts shit at this point.

they should so do it now. That way... they get the EA cream pie + royalty fees. If there's any chance of a ONE CONSOLE WORLD.

its the EA CONSOLE

CHALLENGE EVERYTHING

 

[DJPS2]

At the very least, hopefully this means that EA will finally be able to implement some decent TV-style presentation into its sports games.

Of course, the EA Hate-o-rade is being dispensed with speed and fervor.

 

[Chesapeake Silt]

Ah well. I never thought that VC was using the ESPN license that well anyway. They had the logos and announcing teams, but never got much hype from the on-air network. EA, though... they were always all over ESPN. They sponsored that NFL show (and used Madden clips to illustrate it), they had ESPN's college football team in their game (and they talk about that game on the air constantly, which is sort of annoying in it's own way). They even had Madden on Sportscenter for interviews every Monday night, but I guess that's unavoidable because of all the ESPN / ABC tie-ins.

It'll be interesting to see where the VC / Take Two games go from here, though. Maybe Fox wants to take on the ABC / ESPN / EA team-up? Would be a good license to have for football and baseball, anyway.

 

[fennec fox]

the fact that EA has the power to make their own console, and very easily fuck up Sony and Microsofts shit at this point.

Why does this rumor still exist? It's a bigger advantage to have console manufacturers vying for your attention than to go through the billions required to create and market your own system.

 

[Sinatar]

Shrug, its just rights to a television station's logo, not exclusive sports rights.

 

[Hollywood]

EA =

"I want you to die Mr. Bond!"

 

[Apharmd Battler]

Is this news for real?! This can't be true can it?! This has to be some sort of prank news article........right?

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

Wow.

 

[nubbe]

We must do something before it's too late!

 

[Trojan X]

At least the NBA Association told EA to piss-off when EA approached them for the NBA licence. NBA's reason in a nutshell?

"Your NBA games are craP!"


:lol :lol :lol

 

[Kon Tiki]

Shrug, its just rights to a television station's logo, not exclusive sports rights.

Rights that Sega still had for 3 other sports brands. One that is coming out ina few months.

 

[ToxicAdam]

the fact that EA has the power to make their own console, and very easily fuck up Sony and Microsofts shit at this point.

Maybe they could contact ex-EA employee Trip Hawkins on how easy it is to start up a console.

 

[Slo]

what a dirty, evil, underhanded, yet hilarious move

 

[Kuroyume]

God damn ridiculous

 

[DJPS2]

Shrug, its just rights to a television station's logo, not exclusive sports rights.

Well, aside from the fact that it gives EA Hate Nation something else to whine about, it's important in that ESPN is the most recognizable sports network brand that there is right now. Sports gamers and fans identify even more with EA games that have that ESPN presentation style to them and contain familiar ESPN talking heads, like Chris Berman and such.

 

[Mooreberg]

Sega is so inept it borders on parody. If Take 2 still wants VC a year from now, Sega will have driven down it's own bargaining power to chump change. :lol

 

[Arluss]

So... you're saying a lack of competition is good for an industry?

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

EA console - 2010

 

[DJPS2]

So... you're saying a lack of competition is good for an industry?

I don't know... we made it through the NES era just fine.
We also weathered the GameBoy pseudo-monopoly with ease.

I think that we'll get through not having any competition in the football arena. Really.

 

[AstroLad]

Well, aside from the fact that it gives EA Hate Nation something else to whine about, it's important in that ESPN is the most recognizable sports network brand that there is right now. Sports gamers and fans identify even more with EA games that have that ESPN presentation style to them and contain familiar ESPN talking heads, like Chris Berman and such.

There isn't really such a thing as "EA HATE NATION" other than maybe a few people who honestly "hate" the company (though when people say e.g. "EA is the devil" you are gullible if you think most of them are serious), but rather just long (some very long)-time sports game players who don't like what EA is doing to the industry, and the way they are going about eliminating the competition not by making their games better or more competitively priced, but just by buying shit up so gamers no longer even have the possibility of another choice.

Oh and then there's the people who will suck on EA balls and call them gumdrops no matter what they do.

 

[Legal Step]

EA really is on a roll.

 

[DMczaf]

At least the NBA Association told EA to piss-off when EA approached them for the NBA licence. NBA's reason in a nutshell?

"Your NBA games are craP!"


:lol :lol :lol

See, the blind EA hate makes me laugh :lol

 

[imastalker co.]

Why does this rumor still exist?

i didn't imply that it was a rumor, or even bringing it up.

was simply saying, that if EA wanted to, they could totally get away with it at this point.

 

[COCKLES]

 

[Trojan X]

Bro - ignoring marketing and money, EA is NOT and never will be a Nintendo or Sega. Therefore if there was only EA producing games then 60% of all gamers including myself would practically give up gaming.

*sigh... If only many of you knew what really goes on behind the scenes - it's sick man its sick...

 

[Matlock]

The best thing to come of this is seeing Wasabi, DM, FMT, et al posting that ESPN NFL 2K6 is the greatest football game ever.

 

[imastalker co.]

Maybe they could contact ex-EA employee Trip Hawkins on how easy it is to start up a console.

im sure any memory or thought that Hawkins has about Digital Chocolate would be completely forgotten in .27 seconds if he got the opportunity.

 

[DMczaf]

The best thing to come of this is seeing Wasabi, DM, FMT, et al posting that ESPN NFL 2K6 is the greatest football game ever.

Nope, EA is not cheesy enough to use that 2K crap.

ESPN Madden NFL 2006!

 

[StoOgE]

Question: does anyone know what this is going to do to the Sega Sports baseball game coming out in the next few months?

Im resolved to playing crappy EA sports games for every (I can live with Madden, but the others are bad).. but if it takes away my baseball fix Im gonna be pissed.

 

[bob_arctor]

and the way they are going about eliminating the competition not by making their games better or more competitively priced, but just by buying shit up so gamers no longer even have the possibility of another choice.

Exactly. Also, let's make clear that it Take Two had the balls/money to do something like this, they'd do it in a heartbeat. And it would be equally as disgusting. But hey, we're not dwelling in hypotheticals here and there is only room for one Satan, so with that, a nice FUCK YOU EA.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Back to World Series Baseball?

 

[DJPS2]

Bro - ignoring marketing and money, EA is NOT and never will be a Nintendo or Sega. Therefore if there was only EA producing games then 60% of all gamers including myself would practically give up gaming.

*sigh... If only many of you knew what really goes on behind the scenes - it's sick man its sick...

Is that some sort of scientific poll you took? 60% of all gamers are ready to just throw in the towel if only EA made games? Impressive.

EA won't be the "only" company producing games, although the ridiculous amounts of "Chicken Little" paranoia in threads like these are comedic to behold. Even if EA was to dominate the sports game genre-- which it's more-or-less done for the better part of the last two console generations-- I don't see an exodus of gamers hanging up their controllers and crying in their Wheaties.

 

[bob_arctor]

Question: does anyone know what this is going to do to the Sega Sports baseball game coming out in the next few months?

Im resolved to playing crappy EA sports games for every (I can live with Madden, but the others are bad).. but if it takes away my baseball fix Im gonna be pissed.

The new license doesn't take effect until 2006, when existing licenses are done.

 

[-SRV-]

Ugh. EA is gonna ruin gaming.

 

[AirBrian]

i didn't imply that it was a rumor, or even bringing it up.

was simply saying, that if EA wanted to, they could totally get away with it at this point.

Easily.

NFL (and Street versions)
NBA (and Street versions)
MLB
NHL
FIFA (and Street versions)
Tiger Woods
Boxing
NASCAR
F-1
SSX
James Bond
Need for Speed
Burnout
Medal of Honor
TimeSplitters
The Sims
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
The Godfather

But like it's been said, paying royalty fees is much cheaper than R&D and producing their own console.

 

[Link316]

So... you're saying a lack of competition is good for an industry?

there's still gonna be football games from Midway and VC

 

[cja]

Cruelest part for me:

The ESPN integration will appear in EA SPORTS console, handheld, PC and wireless games beginning in 2006 upon the conclusion of ESPN's existing video game licensing commitments.

So Sega/Take-Two have the rights this year to ESPN, what do they do? If they use the license they're just adding value to the brand in the videogame arena and this will benefit EA the following year. If Sega/Take-Two don't use the license then they are wasting an exclusivity agreement they've already paid for.

If Take-Two are serious they'll have to start a R* Sports brand. Maybe get a long-term deal with Fox and go after long-term deals with sports governing bodies, other than NFL of course.

 

[kard]

At least the NBA Association told EA to piss-off when EA approached them for the NBA licence. NBA's reason in a nutshell?

"Your NBA games are craP!"


:lol :lol :lol

EA's goal is totally destroying VC. When they couldn't get exclusive licenses to the other leagues, they did the next best thing, buy out the competition's brand name.

 

[retardboy]

Is this not grounds for a freaken antitrust suit? I mean come on now... EA comes in and takes an exclusive NFL license, they then go on and try to get exclusive licenses for everything under the sun including the AFL to hinder competition. Next, because they only were able to secure the football licenses, they go and purchase their sole competitors brand name. Does this not make it impossible to compete? When your competitor purchases your brand name that you built up over the past years and add that to the fact that they took the license to your most popular game and were pursuing taking license to every other league. Oh and just in case Sega wanted to go the AFL route, they purchased that license too. Now how is this not a good case?

 

[Kon Tiki]

Easily.

NFL (and Street versions)
NBA (and Street versions)
MLB
NHL
FIFA (and Street versions)
Boxing
NASCAR
F-1
SSX
James Bond
Need for Speed
Burnout
Medal of Honor
TimeSplitters
The Sims
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
The Godfather

But like it's been said, paying royalty fees is much cheaper than R&D and producing their own console.

Wait wait, I thought they have publishing right for Time Splitter 3, not the entire franchise.

 

[Hollywood]

im sure any memory or thought that Hawkins has about Digital Chocolate would be completely forgotten in .27 seconds if he got the opportunity.

I think he was being sarcastic to say that it's not as easy as it looks to start up a console - not an actual suggestion to call him for help.

 

[AstroLad]

Cruelest part for me:


So Sega/Take-Two have the rights this year to ESPN, what do they do? If they use the license they're just adding value to the brand in the videogame arena and this will benefit EA the following year. If Sega/Take-Two don't use the license then they are wasting an exclusivity agreement they've already paid for.

If Take-Two are serious they'll have to start a R* Sports brand. Maybe get a long-term deal with Fox and go after long-term deals with sports governing bodies, other than NFL of course.

Yeah it's kinda sad now that the name of the game isn't make the best title (remember when 989 pwned Madden for years, forcing Madden to get its shit back together?), but wasting (well, it's wasting money to me since it does ZERO to improve the game) money buying up licenses. It's a shitty game, and definitely one very few can beat EA at.

 

[sammy]

I wonder how many stripers were shot and urinated on during the negotiations...

 

[Arluss]

I don't know... we made it through the NES era just fine.

That was when the industry didn't need competition in order to move ahead. It was just after a market crash and someone needed to revitalize the industry. I guess the best thing that could happen to the industry was when Sony made a console that could actually compete with Nintendo.