VC employee talks back

thorns

Banned
sorry if old
"Look mom, no balls" --
I've been getting flooded with emails about the little news story that came out yesterday about a certain competitor buying a certain set of licenses exclusively, so I figured I'd say what I can right here so my inbox can stop feeling like an overused two-dollar whore on welfare check day.

First, even though I get to wear pajamas to work, this is a business and it was a smart business move by that company. If you can't beat your competition by quality alone, then you outspend them. They always did this just by having a development team that was 5 times our size and a huge marketing budget that we couldn't possibly match, but that wasn't enough so they figured their only chance to keep the market theirs was to buy the license exclusively. Basically, they got daddy to buy the ball and decided to take it home because they weren't getting their way. I think it's a spineless thing to do, but it's a business and they know that regardless of what the outcry might be by some, they'll still end up buying the game in the end because there'll be no other option.

Second, there's really no need to worry about me or my job status at VC right now. So, while I appreciate the emails, there's no need to feel bad for me in any way, shape or form. Worst case scenario would be things not working out and the **** hitting the fan in about a year, but I don't foresee it happening right now. And even then, just today I got three job offers thrown in my lap, so employement isn't a worry of mine at the moment. Also, my desire to stick it out at VC is higher now than ever before.

Third, moreso than in the past, I cannot talk about what the company is doing. Though, I will say that we're definitely not going to roll over and die. The gridiron fight might've been a toss-up, but the quality of our hockey, NBA, college hoops and baseball games really out-classed theirs in a big way. Plus, we have a LOT of talent on the football team. How else could we make a game that was just as good as Madden while having a staff that was only a small fraction of their size? Simple. Our engineers, artists and designers are amazing, very dedicated, efficient and hard working. We’ll continue to make great games that people will hopefully buy. Luke might’ve just had his hand cut off by Vadar and Han might be frozen in carbonite and in the hands of Jabba, but that's just the end of Act 2 and the war with the evil Empire isn’t over yet. Not by a longshot.

http://forums.operationsports.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=106297
 
Good on him, I hope VC find something else to plug the resulting funding gap so that they can keep going. I don't care for football games, but that doesnt' stop me acknowledging a top class development team fighting the evil EA to the very end.
 
best of luck to them on the sports game. although at this point, im sure EA is working on sucessfully getting the rest of the sports licenses they need at this point.

aside from the sports games though, what else have they made aside from the Flogian Bros., and um.... One right? doesn't really seem like they can do anything good aside from sports games. hmm...i suppose you can take that literally also.
 
jarrod said:
So what's VC going to do without the NFL license? Maybe shift to College Football? Maybe a Soccer game finally?

I like the idea of them making a NCAA football game. The consensus seems to be that EA had dropped the ball on their own NCAA game, so VC can fill that void and still do a football game.
 
Too bad the football games don't have a modding community like the WE/PES games. Within a week we'd have a patch with the uniform and team kits of all the NFL teams, and all the real rosters etc.. :p

Then again there was no reason for this to happen before so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
 
So what's VC going to do without the NFL license? Maybe shift to College Football? Maybe a Soccer game finally?
Maybe they can do a simillar thing that F1 sim makers are doing (since SCEE has an exclusive licence) - make a game with last years teams and names? It works for those F1 devs apparently, people are buying those games.

Or maybe even better, just do what Konami has been doing with WE for ages - just change player names slightly. WE sells prety damn well despite that.
 
? booga booga was great party game. Of course i would like to see them make no sport game from time to time. It's something i always wonder what some developer with their current team could do other than yearly sequel of the same genre, polyphony digital for exemple.
 
Yeah, making the game moddable would be the obvious answer.


Alternatively, can they just have the player's numbers / team's cities / player's stats and not include player / team names?
 
This thread made me realize something...

All their other sports games will undoubtedly turn out better.
 
Marconelly said:
Or maybe even better, just do what Konami has been doing with WE for ages - just change player names slightly. WE sells prety damn well despite that.

Yep, VC / T2 could learn a lot from Konami.

It would really be cool if T2 teamed up with Konami for the WE series.
 
DaCocoBrova said:
This thread made me realize something...

All their other sports games will undoubtedly turn out better.
Unless the Empire Strikes again and secures MLB, NBA and NCAA licenses...remmeber this is EA's third buy out of a highly touted property: #1= NASCAR, #2=Micheal Jordan and now the NFL.

DCX
 
Unless the Empire Strikes again and secures MLB, NBA and NCAA licenses...remmeber this is EA's third buy out of a highly touted property: #1= NASCAR, #2=Micheal Jordan and now the NFL.

DCX

I'm sure the courts would step in eventually.
 
I know what they should do! They should do a NBA Football. Have NBA players play football. That way that have some sort of license! :)
 
retardboy said:
I know what they should do! They should do a NBA Football. Have NBA players play football. That way that have some sort of license! :)

Announcer 1: Kyle Corver drops back... INTERCEPTED by Theo Ratliff.
Announcer 2: You can't coach that.
 
I wonder if there's anything stopping them from including the option to name your own players and teams? I seem to recall a few sports games from the 16-bit days that let you do that.
 
lordmrw said:
I wonder if there's anything stopping them from including the option to name your own players and teams? I seem to recall a few sports games from the 16-bit days that let you do that.

There's nothing illegal about this. How could there be?

The only thing they'd have to fear is one of those insane lawsuits like Marvel filed against City of Heroes.
 
DaCocoBrova said:
I'm sure the courts would step in eventually.

I don't see how they could... most non-sports licenses are exclusive. Unless you mean stepping in if EA as a whole becomes a monopoly.
 
levious said:
I don't see how they could... most non-sports licenses are exclusive. Unless you mean stepping in if EA as a whole becomes a monopoly.

Yeah, I don't see much grounds for courts stepping in. If screwing Sega was against the law, there's a long line in front of EA, including Sega's management.
 
davez.jpg


DFS.
 
They're like...

'If this Albino Incredible Hulk doesn't get off of me...'
 
DaCocoBrova said:
I'm sure the courts would step in eventually.

Not gonna happen. It's not like there won't be bidding sessions for the other licenses like there was for the NFL. Suing EA because it has more money is like me suing Bill Gates because he has more money.

The opportunities will be there, if this is the road that the major sports (of which the NHL no longer qualifies as events like the World Series of Poker, National Spelling Bee, and World Scrabble Championships all get better TV ratings and more notoriety) take by whoring out their licenses to the highest bidder.

I think that there's too much money required to buy license exclusivity for both MLB and the NBA, though.
 
DaCocoBrova said:
They're like...

'If this Albino Incredible Hulk doesn't get off of me...'

Actually, they're more like "God, I'm incredibly drunk." Kojima in particular was thoroughly pickled at the time.

DFS.
 
Johnny Nighttrain said:
the license cost almost as much as MS payed for Rare. closer to 300ish though.

It was A LOT more than that. Imagine how much money the NFL would've made from multiple licensees over five years...and double that.
 
I don't understand, why is this guy calling EA "spineless" and throwing out all sorts of immature insults?

Didn't the NFL make the move, weren't they the ones who went around shopping the exclusive NFL lisence to different companies in the first place? If EA wasn't going to buy them someone else sure as hell will.

I read about the NFL shopping around on a wallstreet analysis story and on these forums, was it true?
 
TekunoRobby said:
I don't understand, why is this guy calling EA "spineless" and throwing out all sorts of immature insults?

Didn't the NFL make the move, weren't they the ones who went around shopping the exclusive NFL lisence to different companies in the first place? If EA wasn't going to buy them someone else sure as hell will.

I read about the NFL shopping around on a wallstreet analysis story and on these forums, was it true?


Well it kind of goes both ways. EA wanted to the NFL license exclusively before, but the NFL and NFLPA declined. Earlier this year, they changed their minds, and solicited bids from different companies.
 
Yes! Ooga Booga! Hotties and Fatties! That was a great DC game. How come we don't see more 3D "battle" games? Maybe they can now get us Ooga Booga 2. Nothing beats a good match of Boar Polo. Nothing.

"Four Score and Seven Years of PAIN!"
 
FitzOfRage said:
Well it kind of goes both ways. EA wanted to the NFL license exclusively before, but the NFL and NFLPA declined. Earlier this year, they changed their minds, and solicited bids from different companies.
Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up.
 
The gridiron fight might've been a toss-up, but the quality of our hockey, NBA, college hoops and baseball games really out-classed theirs in a big way.
He's overestimating VC's better than EA games by at least a game or two. :p NHL, sure, better than EA. College Hoops, can't say since I haven't played it. But really outclassing EA in basketball and baseball? I think it's pretty close in basketball and VC's baseball games aren't exactly perfect (though neither is EA's). Certainly no outclassing in that sport. :p

At any rate, I hope can survive one way or another and hopefully they'll strive to really improve their sports games (which sometimes hasn't happened with certain years and incarnations in their sports series, though I suppose EA could be accused of that more so).
 
Basically, they got daddy to buy the ball and decided to take it home because they weren't getting their way. I think it's a spineless thing to do

Wow speaking of not playing fair. Weren't VC the ones to dump the price of their sports games to $19.99 retail this year?

I bought NHL2K5 for $14 brand new :lol
 
DCX said:
Unless the Empire Strikes again and secures MLB, NBA and NCAA licenses...remmeber this is EA's third buy out of a highly touted property: #1= NASCAR, #2=Micheal Jordan and now the NFL.

DCX
You forgot Tiger Woods.
 
seismologist:
Wow speaking of not playing fair. Weren't VC the ones to dump the price of their sports games to $19.99 retail this year?
There's nothing unfair about competing on price to invest in and promote a brand, and to expand the market to a new demogaphic by reducing the barrier for entry. It's not even close to "dumping" considering the tighter margins brought about high enough volumes for both Sega Sammy and Take-Two to actually expect some level of profitability from all of this.
 
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