EA Securing NCAA Exclusivity?

[MizzouRah]

Round 3?


First came the pros and now college.



By Bryan Intihar




First it was the NFL. Then came ESPN. And now, it appears Electronic Arts is very close to securing another license: NCAA Football. Sources tell us that the publishing powerhouse will soon announce an exclusivity deal with the NCAA, enabling only EA to make football games using university squads (thus shutting another football door in the face of rival 2K Games).
Reps from EA won't confirm or deny the rumor (or whether this will include college basketball titles), but expect plenty more info in the weeks to come.




http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3138341


Todd

[SackAttack]

I suspect this move is aimed more at keeping 2K Games out of the licensed football market entirely (i.e. don't let them shift the work they've done on the pro game to a football game) than any real fear of 2K Games dethroning NCAA.

[Barkeep49]

I would think that with each exclusive market EA locks up the odds of it being worth a fincial risk to challenge the legality of such deals would also go up.

[Calis]

As long as they don't get NCAA Basketball.

[Zippo]

Sweet!

[Ragone]

God.. I really wanna get sega's college hoops game with team names like

South Bend Leperchauns

and

Ville Redbirds

[Pumpy Tudors]

Sweet!
Explain, please.

[SirFozzie]

Explain, please.

Ditto. Explain, EA lover :) (to the original poster)

[Greyroofoo]

Yet another reason why i'll never buy an EA game again

[VPI97]

There were other college football games?

[Eaglesfan27]

There were other college football games?
No. Sounds like a pre-emptive strike.

[Ksyrup]

All of these exclusive deals, from software to satellite radio, suck.

[Ragone]

I think its to prevent others from solely focusing on a college football game..

[MizzouRah]

I think its to prevent others from solely focusing on a college football game..

Yeah, I was thinking Sega would come out with a deep college football game now that the NFL rights are with EA.

Todd

[SunDancer]

Could Sega try to counter and get the rights to Notre Dame and private schools that you have to get licenses for seperately?

[bosshogg23]

I think Notre Dame, Temple and Navy would be the only D-1 teams available for a separate game. Could Sega really get by with teams like Muchigun and Fawlorida Stute?

[Ragone]

Alls sega really has to do is release games with everything customizeable

I don't see what the big deal is.. with everyone having usb software to transfer rosters and such to their consoles these days.. if the games they make are superior to Ea $ports games.. people will buy them

[finkenst]

umm..

how did Jim get away with using the state names as the school names (excluding Notre Dame) in TCY?

[SackAttack]

Public domain. Land-grant universities can't claim exclusive rights to a state name, only to their intellectual property - the mascots. So schools like California, Michigan, Florida, etc, are fair game. Their mascots wouldn't be available, however, and private universities would also be off limits.

But yeah, you can use state names all day long, and nobody can do a thing about it.

[MizzouRah]

Until EA contacts the White House and trys to buy state name rights.


Todd

[Easy Mac]

couldn't they put in "random" mascots for a create a school feature, and just let you apply those to actual schools.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Alls sega really has to do is release games with everything customizeable

I don't see what the big deal is.. with everyone having usb software to transfer rosters and such to their consoles these days.. if the games they make are superior to Ea $ports games.. people will buy them
I know you're not being exact, but not "everyone" has USB equipment or even the knowledge to get that sort of thing. There are a lot of people with consoles who don't know where to start. Those people are not going to sit there and customize every team themselves, especially when EA's game will have every team available right out of the box.

This particular community is not representative of the overall market. While many of us don't like what EA is doing, I'm sure there are thousands more out there who love it or don't even care. If Sega can't do an NFL game or a licensed NCAA game, I honestly don't think it's worth their effort to make a customizable game, financially speaking.

[General Mike]

EA = bastards

[SackAttack]

Until EA contacts the White House and trys to buy state name rights.


Todd

Wouldn't do any good. Those can't be trademarked, and even if they could, they've entered common usage by now because the states failed to aggressively protect those trademarks. :D

In other words, the prospect of such is just so much bologna.

[MizzouRah]

Wouldn't do any good. Those can't be trademarked, and even if they could, they've entered common usage by now because the states failed to aggressively protect those trademarks. :D

In other words, the prospect of such is just so much bologna.

Is that B-O-L-O-G-N-A? :D

I was speaking sarcastically, but it's funny how much this world runs with green paper. Our choices in sports games are dwindling by the second and I see fictional name/player games becoming the norm for most.

Todd

[sterlingice]

Until EA contacts the White House and trys to buy state name rights.

Todd
Yeah, I heard Dubya is looking for some money to help fund his new budget, so maybe you're onto something :D

SI

[Kodos]

This is just sad. Instead of trying to beat your opponents by making a superior game (which I think they have more or less achieved up until now football-wise), let's just buy all the licenses. Screw you, EA.

[Greyroofoo]

"But don't think for a second that we don't see WoW as both a great game AND Blizzard as serious competition.

Personally... I'm glad they are out there. They keep us honest. They keep us focused and they force us to play with our 'A' game. They've certainly opened some eyes in our company to styles of gameplay that are different than we would have come up with inside SOE. " John Smedley, President of SOE (Who made EQ2)
Full letter can be found on IGN

I wish EA would think like this

[KWhit]

Screw you, EA.
Did Kodos really just say that???

[Zippo]

Explain, please.
lol, I forgot to turn on the sarcasm tag. ;)