Gaming Electronic Arts WINS!

[Gokou Alpha]

A friend of mines brought this to light:

[QUOTE]
[URL=http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=1945691]From ESPN.com[/URL]

[URL=http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041213/135991_1.html]Source[/URL]

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2004--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) today announced exclusive licensing relationships with the National Football League and PLAYERS INC to develop, publish and distribute interactive football games. These five-year agreements -- which EA negotiated separately -- give EA the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums and players for use in its football videogames. Both agreements also include exclusive rights for console online features. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

For the first time, all aspects of the interactive experience -- including console-based fantasy football features and handheld game devices -- will be fully integrated with one EA game. This also provides the opportunity for new games and for EA to access both NFL Films and the NFL Network for use in the games.

"We are pleased to expand our agreement with Electronic Arts, the leading video game manufacturer and a valued NFL partner," said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "We look forward to working with EA to continue to enhance the quality of NFL video games that our fans have enjoyed for many years."

"For more than a decade, EA has produced the most authentic football product for fans of the game," said PLAYERS INC Chairman Gene Upshaw. "This exclusive relationship will maximize the value of NFL players through EA's continued commitment to bring fans closer to the game."

"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."

Both agreements are exclusive for action simulation, arcade-style and manager games on the PC, handheld game devices and consoles -- including console online features. The agreements do not include exclusive rights to other types of games or games accessible from the Internet or wireless devices, including cellular phones.

Madden NFL Football from the EA SPORTS(tm) brand has sold more than 42 million copies over the franchise's 15 year history. Madden NFL 2005, the most complete football game ever, is available for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® videogame system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube(tm), Game Boy® Advance, the PlayStation® console and PC. NFL STREET 2 for the PlayStation 2 console, Xbox system and Nintendo GameCube will be on store shelves by December 26, 2004. Both games were developed by EA Tiburon, and rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB. The games official websites are [url]www.madden2005.com[/url] and [url]www.nflstreet2.com[/url].

[b][i](my friends comments)-->No Sony, Midway, Sega, or Microsoft Football games for the next 5 years...

1. I cant believe this.
2. I will never buy an EA SPORTS game again.
3. I cant deny, this was a great move by EA.
4. I want to call it a monopoly.
5. Thanks National Football League and PLAYERS INC, you made my day :angryfire:
6. What is ahead for madden without competition? Will the games get better (I doubt)? Will the games get worse (Just like their NASCAR game)? Will VA from ESPN give some ideas to EA (As EA wants it)? Will EA raise the price for madden? Will they get the licenses for other sports?
7. Man Oh man, I love Sega for scaring EA that much. Gotta root for the smaller companies you know.
8. If it was the other way around, would I be mad at Sega?
9. Is there a loop-hole in the Contract?
10. EA is both evil and intelligent.
11. Sega. Sony. Microsoft, and Midway all had football games in the works using the NFL license. They had already been in development for several months, and now will require massive overhauls in order to be released. This may not only delay the games, but cost the companies millions of dollars. Dont they have the right to sue the NFL for making this deal?

Wow...just wow.[/b][/i]

Care to sign a [URL=http://www.petitiononline.com/nfleacon/petition.html]petition?[/URL][/QUOTE]

Let the rage and/or praise begin .... If you wanna make a change sign the petition...if you love this info well ok then...

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Business is business.

Anyway, as it stands, I don't like 'sports' games. EA is a great game manufacturer...I love them. Especially for Battlefield. But I'm afraid sport games hold no thrill for me. If I want to play sport, I'd rather play it IRL, than on a computer or console. Sport-based video games have never felt natural to me.[/size]

[The Vampire: Ed]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=Red]That's just terrible. EA just did that because they knew they couldn't win. SEGA sports made the better games, [b]and[/b] offered unbeatable prices. EA, even if it is how business is done, to me, are nothing but sore losers. I'm just waiting for them to buy out the rights for the NBA, NHL, and MLB too. I wouldn't be surpised. They know they can't touch the quality of SEGA's sports games.

If SEGA was able to do this I'd been extremely happy, because unlike EA, especially nowadays, SEGA Sports puts out worth while sports games that look, feel, and play way better. Hell, and for only twenty bucks too. Not sure if that price would stay the same, but at least their twenty dollar sports games are actually worth fifty dollars unlike most of EA's sports games.[/COLOR] [/FONT]

[Semjaza]

I don't care for sports games on average either, but if this is as far reaching as it seems, it's obviously not a good thing. It effectively kills off any real competition without them having to do anything in terms of making their games better.

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Semjaza Azazel']I don't care for sports games on average either, but if this is as far reaching as it seems, it's obviously not a good thing. It effectively kills off any real competition without them having to do anything in terms of making their games better.[/quote]

Basically. To be fair, we don't know if the overall quality of EA's Madden games after this will level off, or even drop, but this is still a bit disparaging. It's a good business move for EA (for now, anyway, who's to say what will happen down the road, though?), but it doesn't seem to be very good for gamers. Sega Sports' NFL2K/ESPN series has always provided good competition for Madden, and this move just about kills any football games that Sega Sports would make in the future. Sure, they could still make football games, but they will not sell without the NFL license; at least, not in the quantities that Sega would like to see.

[satan665]

I love football games, and this is really disheartening. I have Madden up to 2004 for PS2, and just this year ESPN had equalled if not surpassed Madden in quality. Selling the brand new game for $20 pulled me in even though I was a big Madden fan, plus the review from PSM recommended ESPN.

This is really a stupid move for the NFL I think, EA must have thrown a ton of money at them. Its bad enough that Monday Night Football last year had in game shots used to talk about real football games.

Does this mean that we are going back to the days of the unlicensed sports games where you can play as S.F. but not the 49ers? Maybe ESPN can use the online support to give updates to ESPN 2K5 rosters, and let the players fill in the names of the rookies that get signed? I'm soooo not happy about this.

[The Vampire: Ed]

[QUOTE][URL=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=3490]EA and NFL deny reports of exclusive deal

Rob Fahey 09:54 20/05/2004
EA Sports' rivals heave a sigh of relief as reports are decried as false

Both Electronic Arts and the NFL Players Association have moved to deny reports that they are working towards a major exclusive deal for player rights licensing, with the Sports Business Journal retracting its original story.

"The story published in Sports Business Journal includes some serious errors related to agreements between EA and its partners," Electronic Arts spokesman Glen O'Connell told gi.biz. "The financials reported in the story are incorrect by an order of magnitude and the NFL Players Association has contacted the publisher to request a correction."

The NFL Players Association has also separately denied the reports, which suggested that EA would enter into a four-year exclusive licensing deal with Players, Inc (NFLPA's licensing arm) costing some $250 million per year.[/URL]

[URL=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/index.php]Sorce: GamesIndustry.biz[/URL][/QUOTE]

Apparently, it was all false information and I'm extremely happy to hear this if it is true.

[satan665]

Wow, I'm very hopeful that this was all just bad reporting. It makes me feel a lot better.

[Charles]

Obviously, Sega and Take 2 started this whole mess by undercutting EA through price instead of going head to head directly through product quality. In addition to that, it's not as if there's any real competition for EA's Madden franchise to begin with. Sony's Gameday has been awful for years, Microsoft cancelled its mediocre Fever franchise, and Blitz was lost in the shuffle ages ago. In short, EA's foolish if they bothered. Although ESPN sold more than it usually does this past year, more people still bought Madden despite its substantially higher price tag. That speaks volumes as to where these titles stand, quite frankly.

[James]

[color=#811C3A]Erm, I'm not sure about the rumor thing. As far as I know, it's still being reported that this exclusivity contract involves the NFL for the next five years. Midway has already changed the name of one of its upcoming NFL-based titles in response, apparently (to avoid conflicting with the agreement).

In semi-related news, it was announced just recently that EA has purchased a 20% share of Ubisoft, which gives it the largest share in the company (though not a controlling share).

I find it interesting that EA has become increasingly Microsoft-esque in recent months. They've acquired numerous developers.

My main concern (apart from a lack of competition), is the question of employment conditions. EA is now infamous for having among the industry's harshest and most terrible working conditions (if you've ever read the EA Spouse article, you'll know what I mean). I am hoping that EA doesn't extend its crazy cost-cutting measures to its new subsidiaries. That'd hurt the entire industry as well as the consumers.[/color]

[Semjaza]

While it's true that Take2 cut prices dramatically once they got the series, I would argue the "quality" aspect of it. Sega was making some rather large strides and while I don't really love football enough to buy every title, every year, the Sega titles had enough going for them to be good competition. In fact, many things were actually better.

The only reason I think EA bothered to do some of the things in recent games in terms of "bettering" or "evolving" them was simply because Sega was the only decent competition since the Genesis days. With Madden being the only game in town with any real teams or names, they solidify being in front now without really having to do a single thing to the gameplay other than adding new stats because not a single other game can really compete.

Take 2 didn't cut these prices that long ago, really. I'm sure this has been a goal of EA's for quite some time and not simply a knee-jerk reaction because Take 2 made their games $20 or whatever. I doubt it's that simple. Madden is the biggest football title there is and its name goes a long, long way. Hell, look how well Live was doing even when it was well known that it was absolute crap for quite awhile. It takes different tactics to bring those sorts of things down.

[Magnum Apex]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=darkblue]In 2004, we saw a bold pricing move from ESPN and Sega, when they released their summer/fall sports titles for only $19.99. Originally, EA brushed it off by publicly dismissing the competition, but ESPN NFL 2K5 sales closed in on Madden NFL 2005 enough for EA to respond. Quietly, Electronic Arts dropped the price of their sports games to $29.95. Two excellent football games were then bargain-priced.

But Sega continued to sell their sports games at an admirable pace, and it was a sign of great things that could've come, as the success of this little war would've enticed other publishers to make price cuts in order to increase sales and face competition. Sadly, EA was not satisfied with having a close second in the charts, so they acquired a 5-year exclusivity deal with the NFL, a blow Sega won't recover for a long time. It seemed EA simply responded to the NFL's desire to have a single publisher releasing their games, but the deal is still one that goes against the growth of the industry. ESPN though, lost love for the first company that made good traditional sports titles with their brand, so they packed their bags, and...[/color][/font]

[quote][font=trebuchet ms][url]http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/17/news_6116473.html[/url][/font]

[size=3][b]Electronic Arts, ESPN hook up in exclusive 15-year deal[/size]

ESPN brand and programming to surface in EA sports titles on all platforms; deal is second blow to Sega Sports and Visual Concepts.[/b]

Electronic Arts broke the calm of a national holiday today by announcing a licensing deal of epic proportions. For the next fifteen years, EA will be the sole licensee of the ESPN brand in the area of sports games, which will include console, handheld, PC, and wireless games.

Games with leverage the ESPN brand will make their way to retail sometime during calendar year 2006, "upon the conclusion of ESPN?s existing video game licensing commitments."

The news is the second blow to current license-holder Sega (and its Visual Concepts development studio). It recently lost the right to publish sports games using the NFL license when EA scooped that license up. Now, it loses the right to the ESPN brand as well.

In a statement released just minutes ago, the world's largest game publisher said, "The relationship will include established EA SPORTS franchises--which will be enhanced by ESPN telecast, print and online content--as well as new sports games to be published by EA based on ESPN media properties."

The agreement is for fifteen years "with an option to terminate after ten years under certain conditions," the statement said. The agreement gives the publisher "exclusive first rights" to all ESPN content for simulation sports games.

[size=1]By Curt Feldman ? [I][url="http://www.gamespot.com/"]GameSpot[/url][/I]
POSTED: 01/17/05 12:05 PM PST [/size][/quote]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=darkblue]"Ouch!"

That was my first thought. Sega is like the guy that got cheated on by his wife, whom upon divorce got the house, the car, and left [i]him[/i] with the kids. Marketing people probably saw this coming, however. It'd be very unlikely for ESPN to [i]not[/i] publish a licensed NFL game.

The first news blow. I didn't like the fact that now only one publisher has the rights to the NFL. I'm not an American football fan, but the principle goes against competition in the industry. On the other hand, I do believe the second is good news... for [i]me[/i]. I only care about the baseball games, and EA did it better than Sega, so EA + ESPN = Best baseball experience around.

Still... poor Sega... I can't help but feel bad for them.[/color][/font]

[color=#4B0082]*merges with previous thread* - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color]