EA wants to stop 2K All-Pro Football franchise

[grismosw]

Take Two should just come out with an equivalent of Winning Eleven for Football...full customization.

I'd never by Madden again.

[srudoff]

Quote: Originally Posted by Keirik

well, that is the absolute bottom line, the license was up for sale and both companies bid on it. The losers are us, the winners are EA. For the record, i'd say the MAJORITY of gamers are not happy at all with ANY exclusivity deal. The only ones happy to see it are called fanboys, so again, i don't agree with the concept that people are fine with the baseball deal either..

i honestly didn' think anyone was happy about the baseball deal, i'm just sick of people bashing big bad EA for something that 2k would have loved to have done with nfl and did on their own with mlb (although admittedly not as exclusive as ea's nfl deal). 2k is a business before anything else and they hail the almight dollar as much as ea - it's just that they haven't been around long enough to build up the mass reserves and resources that EA has. like i said, if 2k could have outbid EA for the nfl license, you know damn well that they would have

[bkfount]

Quote: Originally Posted by JRod

I wouldn't say EA is struggling but their huge titles aren't the killers apps they used to be because they've been pleasing the shareholders and not the people that actually buy games. I believe Madden sales have been stagnant over the last few years. NBA Live has been poor. They don't have any baseball game revenue. They've had to pay enormous sums of money just to eliminate NASCAR, NCAA and NFL competition. They have the FIFA license but WE continues to do well against FIFA. EA is not in a serious situation like TT2 but their sports division isn't lighting the world on fire. Their best sellers are the sims and its 20,098 add-on packs. EA has not had a huge hit in a few years. They've had some successes but they aren't cranking out games like "the sims". Medal of Honor isn't the killer war app it was in the past. EA has turned into a movie company that likes to put out sub-par date movies that turn a profit. But in this case they aren't putting out blockbusters like Halo, God of War, or Gears of War. To sum it up, EA isn't struggling but its costing them more and more to crank out their the market leaders. For whatever reason, (that's up for debate but I think it's because their games aren't that good), their games aren't selling as well or had sales remain stagnant. And they have no real killer apps.

You are kind of misreading their purpose. EA doesn't exist to put out a God of War. It takes a whole development team years to make a game like that. However, EA is the king of marketing the games made under their umbrella of development studios to as many people as possible, and making sure they're fresh enough to keep people buying every year or so. They pretty much single handedly created the yearly sports franchise idea. Contrary to the apparent belief of quality, most of their franchises aren't horrible, and in fact are good games if you take the repetition and lack of innovation out of the equation.

EA does what it does for a reason, and they do it well enough. That's why it was laughable to see an EA exceutive of all people criticize the sequel frenzy the industry is in. They're the ones leading the parade.

[Pared]

Quote: Originally Posted by srudoff

if 2k made a generic game with franchise, they'd outsell the apf IMO and the game would be awesome, ESPECIALLY if they allowed you to edit ALL the players and teams

I don't agree with you... but I still think they'd do it to test the waters and see if they could turn a profit.

At least they wouldn't be paying ANY licensing fees.

Quote: Originally Posted by BagMan

Whatever......Leia

?

[NovaStar]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChicagoSparty

Business is about making money. Tell your shareholders about your ethics when you miss next quarter's numbers and see how far that gets you. Moreover, I don't see where anything here is unethical. It's an exclusive license to make a certain type of game. That's it. Other companies are and will be free to develop competing football games.

So let me make sure I am understanding the posters that responded to me. Is business about making money or is it about removing the competition? And exactly how does a business go about making money? I will answer the last question for you. A business makes money by getting consumers to buy their products (demand) and supplying that product that consumers want (supply). Now, when ea sold madden last year and set all of those sales records, was it because the consumer demanded their football game or because there was no viable choice for another nfl football game? (in this case nfl and football are synonymous, dont kid yourself).

Also, what does ethical have to do with rules, ethics is more rooted in intent and behavior, rather than rules. If I attempt to slide into second base and hit the knee of the second baseman, while sliding into second is within the rules, if I intentionally aimed at his knee and made it look like it was accidental, that totally breaches the ethics of baseball.

[KBomber]

I would have to see it if there was ever a company more determined than EA to take the fun out of the virtual gaming industry

Like many, if the interest from EA were more concerned with improving their franchises, rather than driving out competition so that they were the only option on the market by default, I'd applaud EA. What they do is draconian with respect to the interests of the gaming public

It's a shame, really

Have fun...............

[newgen1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Behindshadows2

Did you really think they would overlook them. take-two just got $50 million from Microsoft just for 2 exclusive levels to GTA, thats more money than they make in the whole fiscal year. And when 2k makes any kind of football game, its a threat to EA, because even with the license, their games still fall short. So anything that comes out by 2k, will reak fun!!! and that scares them. It just means 2ksports is doing something right....And I assure you, the NFL commission is watching close. Even if Madden sells well, I assure you someone at the NFL office is definitely playing APF somewhere...and the word will get back about it.

I think EA is looking at the bigger picture....... If VC does get the NFL rights back in 2 years they will have the NFL as well as the former Legends tied up for future games. That’s something that EA would hate to compete with against future Maddens. EA tried to parley the NFL license into other games like NFL Head Coach but it didn’t sell well. Now come along a company that puts out a very enjoyable alternative football game with the greatest legends of all time and they are like “hold-up” EA feels Madden is NFL Football entitlement (they go hand in hand together) and to have great players like Elway, Rice, Montana, Singatary etc. in a competitors game is a insulting to them. Hence the comment “ a blip” Being the Football giant that EA is, they feel its a direct treat to their football empire down the line. It will be interesting to see what transpires in the months to come. VC knew this could happen and that’s why they kept APF a secret as long as they did. I bet they signed up the Legends for at least 2 years but after that EA will probably step in and up the price thereby forcing VC out of the Legends market. I hope not but I can see this happening.

[BagMan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

I don't agree with you... but I still think they'd do it to test the waters and see if they could turn a profit. At least they wouldn't be paying ANY licensing fees. Quote: Originally Posted by BagMan Whatever......Leia ?

Princess Leia to Vader. Damn, where's that nerd emoticon??

I agree with you by the way.