NCAA Football 14 News Post

EA Files Motion to Be Dismissed from O'Bannon Case

04:37 PM - July 30, 2013 by RaychelSnr

In the ever evolving Ed O'Bannon vs. NCAA/EA/The World case, it seems Electronic Arts is now attempting to be dismissed from the case.

In the motion, EA claims:

Quote:


	"[The plaintiffs' complaint] pleads no facts to support their theory that Electronic Arts Inc. participated in an antitrust conspiracy with the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing company," EA contends in its filing. "All [the complaint] alleges is that EA agreed to follow the NICAA's rules regarding using student athletes' names and likenesses. That is not a viable antitrust claim."

Pending a trial, appeals, and more -- we are still years away from a resolution in this case which means gamers probably have nothing to worry about short term with regards to college sports gaming now that EA has inked a new multi-year deal with the CLC.

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Member Comments

# 1 JLoco11 @ 07/30/13 05:03 PM

EA is still holding on to their wildcard argument!

Doubtful this will be tossed out, in a civil case you don't need to present your facts at pre-motion hearings, so EA is just creating more paperwork and headlines knowing this isn't going to work. It's just driving up O'Bannon's legal fees.

Once the trial starts, EA is going to use their number 1 defense "We followed NCAA rules barring payments... Yes we used their likeness, but the NCAA rules still state they cannot receive payments as amateurs... therefore we owe Keller & O'Bannon nothing".

Only reason the NCAA is sh!tting bricks is because as a non-profit, they made a boatload of profit off this deal. Their hypocrisy will be on trial, and EA can sit back and let their former business partner take the fall.

# 2 mva5580 @ 07/30/13 06:49 PM

I really wouldn't be surprised at all if some point EA says "forget it, this game isn't worth our trouble."

Let's face it, if you were to rank the heavy hitters in the EA Sports lineup, NCAA Football is what. 3rd or 4th on the list? Madden and FIFA are most definitely more important to EA, and I'd wager NHL is probably above it as well. It's not like NCAA sells an absolute ton either; I mean it does fine for what it is, but it's not like this is a title that EA puts at the top of its portfolio.

Between the NCAA dumping the license, and now what this could potentially become, there have to be some people at EA questioning whether or not this series is worth continuing.

# 3 Gramps91 @ 07/30/13 06:54 PM

Hopefully something is resolved soon. I want a college basketball game and this case certainly isn't helping issues

# 4 Feldman011teen @ 07/30/13 07:25 PM

My question is this. If EA has had an "exclusive" deal with the NCAA, and now can't do anything with it, they went through the CLC. Why couldn't any other publisher such as 2K or Sony done the same?

# 5 billtom @ 07/30/13 08:58 PM

So this is what ea has been working on instead of a patch...

# 6 BleedGreen710 @ 07/30/13 09:32 PM

"having a college football game is all that matters to me,

we don't need the NCAA its all about the CLC"

# 7 mjavon @ 07/30/13 10:07 PM

Is CLC just schools or is it conferences as well?

# 8 bigbob @ 07/30/13 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigMoneyAllDay


	um billtom you realize that ea doesnt use its ncaa devs as lawyers right? wtf?

You do realize that his was probably joking, right?

And you do realize that at some point, EA is probably going to have to have their NCAA Developers testify in some way saying they didn't use any type of player likeliness.

# 9 billtom @ 07/30/13 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigMoneyAllDay


	um billtom you realize that ea doesnt use its ncaa devs as lawyers right? wtf?

Wait a sec are you telling me that the guys that make a video game are not also top notch lawyers litigating in a class action lawsuit?

# 10 jmaj315 @ 07/31/13 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLoco11


	EA is still holding on to their wildcard argument! Doubtful this will be tossed out, in a civil case you don't need to present your facts at pre-motion hearings, so EA is just creating more paperwork and headlines knowing this isn't going to work. It's just driving up O'Bannon's legal fees. Once the trial starts, EA is going to use their number 1 defense "We followed NCAA rules barring payments... Yes we used their likeness, but the NCAA rules still state they cannot receive payments as amateurs... therefore we owe Keller & O'Bannon nothing". Only reason the NCAA is sh!tting bricks is because as a non-profit, they made a boatload of profit off this deal. Their hypocrisy will be on trial, and EA can sit back and let their former business partner take the fall.

lol looking forward to that

Quote:

Originally Posted by mva5580


	I really wouldn't be surprised at all if some point EA says "forget it, this game isn't worth our trouble." Let's face it, if you were to rank the heavy hitters in the EA Sports lineup, NCAA Football is what. 3rd or 4th on the list? Madden and FIFA are most definitely more important to EA, and I'd wager NHL is probably above it as well. It's not like NCAA sells an absolute ton either; I mean it does fine for what it is, but it's not like this is a title that EA puts at the top of its portfolio. Between the NCAA dumping the license, and now what this could potentially become, there have to be some people at EA questioning whether or not this series is worth continuing.

behind NHL??? I just read another post that said NHL has sold 1.2 mil copies per year these last few years. I would have to guess NCAA is more than that based on the fact that it's maddens little brother/beta lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbob


	You do realize that his was probably joking, right? And you do realize that at some point, EA is probably going to have to have their NCAA Developers testify in some way saying they didn't use any type of player likeliness.

By testify you mean lie right? ..... right?

# 11 TreyIM2 @ 07/31/13 06:25 AM

Hmmm. EA may get out of this because of the fact that they paid for license to use for their game and representing college football is what the game is supposed to be about. The NCAA amateur sports clause for nonpayment of players is apart of all that but who knows. The law and rules don't always work right....right?

# 12 LastExit @ 07/31/13 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eaterofworlds888


	Hopefully something is resolved soon. I want a college basketball game and this case certainly isn't helping issues

The NCAA owns "March Madness" and the NCAA tournament.....I suppose a generic game could be made but without the actual tournament it wouldn't be worth it to EA to bother.

# 13 LastExit @ 07/31/13 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreyIM2


	Hmmm. EA may get out of this because of the fact that they paid for license to use for their game and representing college football is what the game is supposed to be about. The NCAA amateur sports clause for nonpayment of players is apart of all that but who knows. The law and rules don't always work right....right?

I think EA stands a pretty good chance of coming out of this unscathed. The NCAA essentially gave their blessing to this game for all those years so I would imagine that EA's legal team will merely say - "Hey, the NCAA makes these rules and if we were breaking them in any way then they should have told us and we would have complied with their requests just as we did with other features that were removed from the game (excessive celebrations, players being suspended for rules violations in dynasty mode, etc.)." Of course the discovery phase is ongoing and there may be incriminating e-mails or something that may put EA at risk of having to pay if O'Bannon and Co. win but after the dust settles the entity that stands to lose big time from this is the NCAA.

# 14 Dogslax41 @ 07/31/13 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LastExit


	I think EA stands a pretty good chance of coming out of this unscathed. The NCAA essentially gave their blessing to this game for all those years so I would imagine that EA's legal team will merely say - "Hey, the NCAA makes these rules and if we were breaking them in any way then they should have told us and we would have complied with their requests just as we did with other features that were removed from the game (excessive celebrations, players being suspended for rules violations in dynasty mode, etc.)." Of course the discovery phase is ongoing and there may be incriminating e-mails or something that may put EA at risk of having to pay if O'Bannon and Co. win but after the dust settles the entity that stands to lose big time from this is the NCAA.

The NCAA's blessing to use the names doesn't mean a thing to the antitrust case. EA is banking on O'Bannon's team not having proof that EA sought an exclusive agreement. There has to be two parties to an anittrust case and EA is clearly the second party in this case. They are just hoping that O'Bannon's team can't prove that they sought to set the market by dictating what these players likenesses were worth, which by seeking an exclusive is exactly what they were doing.

# 15 bigbob @ 07/31/13 02:40 PM

The Court rejected EA's motion a lot quicker than I expected them to.

# 16 LastExit @ 07/31/13 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dogslax41


	The NCAA's blessing to use the names doesn't mean a thing to the antitrust case. EA is banking on O'Bannon's team not having proof that EA sought an exclusive agreement. There has to be two parties to an anittrust case and EA is clearly the second party in this case. They are just hoping that O'Bannon's team can't prove that they sought to set the market by dictating what these players likenesses were worth, which by seeking an exclusive is exactly what they were doing.

True, but first and foremost O'Bannon's team will have to show that EA was using player likenesses in the first place. I haven't picked up a copy of NCAA basketball in a while but I don't remember looking at players and thinking "yeah, I see the resemblance" the way that you do with 2K's NBA. Yes, EA used accurate jersey numbers but I don't know if that is tantamount to using a player's likeness. I think O'Bannon has an argument but I don't think it is all that strong when it comes to EA given that the NCAA was directly involved in the game.

It should be an interesting case to follow.

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EA Files Motion to Be Dismissed from O'Bannon Case