Ping Marc V: Will this announcement by EA have any effect on CM5?

[jefflackey]

Hey Marc, I was going to ask you this via email, but thought others might have the same question. I got this PR announcement from EA Sports a day or so ago:

ELECTRONIC ARTS SIGNS EXCLUSIVE
LICENSING AGREEMENT WITH UEFA
EA to produce official licensed videogame for UEFA EURO 2004

CHERTSEY, UK. – February 6th, 2004 – Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced today they have signed an agreement for EA to develop, publish, and distribute the official videogame of UEFA EURO 2004™ under the EA SPORTS™ brand, which will be an official interactive entertainment experience of the EURO 2004™ tournament. The EA SPORTS UEFA EURO 2004 game will be developed and published by EA this summer to coincide with the finals of the UEFA EURO 2004™ tournament in Portugal.

“We are excited to extend UEFA’s mission of promoting European football at every level of the game through our EA SPORTS simulation of the EURO 2004 final tournament event,” said Jan Bolz, Vice President, Sales and Marketing for EA Europe. “Combining EA’s global expertise in football videogames with UEFA’s passionate European fan base will give football fans endless opportunity to relive the excitement and drama of EURO 2004.”

In EURO 2004 mode players can play as any of the 51 European nations. Players can arrange and play friendly matches against other nations or play through the tournament going from qualifying, to playoffs and into the finals. In addition to tracking injuries and suspensions, a new dynamic morale system will track players’ morale, which will fluctuate based on individual and team performances and affect player abilities on the field.

The official UEFA EURO 2004 videogame is currently under development by an EA Canada team, EA’s largest development studio that is world-renown for creating critically-acclaimed, best selling sports games. The officially licensed EURO 2004 videogame is scheduled for release on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, and the PC to coincide with the EURO 2004 finals in Portugal this summer."

Just wondering by what an "exclusive" contract with UEFA meant, and whether it might provide a kink of any kind in your next CM?

Cheers - Jeff

[Ryan S]

I doubt this is any different to the contracts EA signed to release games based on previous World Cup and European Championship tournaments.

This is merely an announcement of Fifa Soccer - Euro 2004 edition.

[jefflackey]

I doubt this is any different to the contracts EA signed to release games based on previous World Cup and European Championship tournaments.

This is merely an announcement of Fifa Soccer - Euro 2004 edition.

Yep, that's what I'd guess - just wanting to hear for sure from Marc. Whenever I read a big publisher has an "Exclusive" license I wonder what effects it might have on others. ;)

[Mac Howard]

In September 1985 I produced a game I called Mexico 86 based on the World Cup held in Mexico the following June. On New Year's eve I received a letter from USGold's (the largest UK mainstream publisher at the time) lawyers demanding I withdraw the game and inform them of all sales made with the implied threat that they would sue for a part of this. They supposedly had "exclusive rights" to the competition and name granted by FIFA and had trade marked the name. It was a pretty anxiety filled start to the New Year as I wasn't able to get legal advice for over a week and the trademarks department was closed preventing my doing a search.

But it all proved to be complete nonsense, the trademarks department stated they had turned down USGold's trademark application (apparently only Switzerland had approved it) and they could see no way that a company could prevent my producing a game about what was clearly a public event. Of course, I couldn't claim any approval from FIFA and certainly didn't.

My legal advisors wrote back very aggressively to USGold claiming "prior use" and demanding that they abandon any attempt to interfere with the game or produce a game that sounded anything like Mexico 86.

Eventually USGold asked for a copy of the game to see if it was suitable as their game for the World Cup. Their comment however was "it's far too complex for the general public" and then produced an appalling game they called "World Cup Carnival". It was voted the "Turkey of the Year" later that year - a pathetic, regurgitated joystick thing bolstered by official tee-shirt and goodie bag :rolleyes:

Similarly, a couple of years back when the Olympic Games were held here in Sydney, there was a furore caused by companies that had "exclusive rights" to advertise their products as official Olympic Games product - a number of them had been upstaged by other advertisers linking their own products to the Games. Nothing ever came of it. The upstaging companies didn't claim official approval, had merely produced better advertising, and the "official" companies just had to wear it.

Exclusive rights to the UEFA Championship doesn't mean a thing other than the right to claim "approval" by UEFA - of course they won't even look at the game but gladly accept their fee. As long as another game doesn't claim official approval there's nothing in the world that EA could do to stop another game (though it doesn't necessarily mean they won't try).

[BreizhManu]

don't use the term CM5 (http://www.championshipmanager.co.uk/main1.php?mode=register made by Eidos) use NFG instead (made by SI)

[Marc Vaughan]

To confirm what Mac's said - it won't have any effect on our next soccer management game (which isn't CM5 incidentally - thats Eidos's new game, the name of ours which will be based on our existing game engine will be announced later this week).

[CAsterling]

In September 1985 I produced a game I called Mexico 86 based on the World Cup held in Mexico the following June.

I remember the game with fondness, it was at the time one of the best of all soccer management games I had played.

It was right up there with Football Director, Treble Champions and the classic - the Double.

Thanks for the memory :)

[Mac Howard]

>I remember the game with fondness, it was at the time one of the best of all soccer management games

I still see the failure of USGold to publish that game the definitive evidence that mainstream publishers have little real understanding of what gamers want. Had they published it then the phenomenon that was CM in 1992 would have occurred 6 years earlier. Even as it stood it sold three times as many games as was normal for the smgs in those days.