New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

[poopoop]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

For ESPN, 2k's contract with them had expired and 2k declined to extend the deal. My understanding is that 2k did not even bid on the AFL or NCAA deals. However in the NCAA's case I am not 100% sure.

That's fine, I'm not claiming otherwise. And of course 2k never bid on the AFL license, I'm pretty sure they never even made an AFL game. All I'm saying is EA has exclusive deals with multiple people and at some point a pattern develops.

If those entities put it up for sale what exactly do you expect EA to do? The NFL is to blame for this mess. EA is just a convenient and easy target.

Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

[bkrich83]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

That's fine, I'm not claiming otherwise. And of course 2k never bid on the AFL license, I'm pretty sure they never even made an AFL game. All I'm saying is EA has exclusive deals with multiple people and at some point a pattern develops.



Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

So what is your point? That EA buys licenses that are for sale? Excluding MLB of course. Do you criticize 2k for doing the same thing?

[poopoop]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

So what is your point? That EA buys licenses that are for sale? Excluding MLB of course. Do you criticize 2k for doing the same thing?

If it wasn't for me absolutely hating baseball then yeah I'd have beef with 2k buying up the MLB deal. I'm not a fan of exclusive deals at all, I'd criticize any any company or league that participates.

[bkrich83]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

If it wasn't for me absolutely hating baseball then yeah I'd have beef with 2k buying up the MLB deal. I'm not a fan of exclusive deals at all, I'd criticize any any company or league that participates.

Who is a fan of license exclusivity? I have a hard time blaming a company in todays dog eat dog business world for buying them. If they didn't someone else would.

[ODogg]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

Nope, only those who sell their licenses as exclusives, that'd be the NFL and NCAA, can be blamed for the lack of competition. As I said, if EA had passed then someone else simply would have bought the exclusive. The point is someone was going to be the exclusive provider once the NCAA/NFL decided that was the route they were going to go.

The entire argument of EA is 50% or whatever to blame is laughable!!!! Let me give you an analogy to what you're saying:

Let's say your parents let you live in a house they owned for several years. One day they needed money from the house and decided to sell it to a random guy off the street named Joe Smith. Joe shows up and evicts you and moves into the house.

Would you direct your anger to Joe Smith over having no place to live?? Is it Joe Smiths fault you are now homeless? Wouldn't it make sense to realize if Joe Smith had never been born that you'd still be homeless because instead of Joe Smith buying the house it'd just have been another random person?? Would anyone in the world think you to be sane if you stalked, harrassed and threatened Joe Smith? Wouldn't it make much more sense to fault your parents for selling your house out from under you without warning???

This is exactly the point why EA shares ZERO culpability here and should have ZERO anger directed at them for the exclusive agreements and this whole lack of competition thing. EA simply made a smart business decision that had to be made, passing on the agreement would have made no sense. If not EA it'd have been 2K sports, if not 2K sports it'd have been (fill in company here).

If you want to be mad at EA for how their football game plays, the features that are missing you want, etc. that's fine. But being mad at EA, or laying any sort of blame at their door, for the exclusive deal(s) is just completely and wildly misguided and utterly senseless.

[kehlis]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

If it wasn't for me absolutely hating baseball then yeah I'd have beef with 2k buying up the MLB deal. I'm not a fan of exclusive deals at all, I'd criticize any any company or league that participates.

How can you criticize the league or company for making a deal that benefits them equally.

As bkrich83 mentioned, exclusive deals don't benefit consumers at all but I don't see how you can fault a business for trying to maximize profit. I'm pretty sure that is the point of any business after all.

Sorry but this isn't just a video game trend...

[poopoop]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

All I'm saying is I'm not giving EA a pass when they have a history of doing it (NASCAR,NCAAFB,ESPN,AFL,NFL) and they, according to some, even lobbied for the NFL deal. Just like they also, according to some, tried to get an exclusive deal with the NBA but their bid got rejected.

Am I mad at the NFL too, of course.

[bkrich83]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

How can you criticize the league or company for making a deal that benefits them equally.

As bkrich83 mentioned, exclusive deals don't benefit consumers at all but I don't see how you can fault a business for trying to maximize profit. I'm pretty sure that is the point of any business after all.

Sorry but this isn't just a video game trend...

Criticizing EA at all costs has become very vogue in video game circles. This one makes them an extremely easy target no matter what the logic is.

For example people keep talking about the ESPN deal. However 2k's deal with ESPN expired and 2k had no intention of renewing. Yet it's EA's fault that they signed with ESPN despite the fact that ESPN had no other suitors out there? Makes total sense right?

[kehlis]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

All I'm saying is I'm not giving EA a pass when they have a history of doing it (NASCAR,NCAAFB,ESPN,AFL,NFL) and they, according to some, even lobbied for the NFL deal. Just like they also, according to some, tried to get an exclusive deal with the NBA but their bid got rejected.

Am I mad at the NFL too, of course.

I'm not really asking you to give EA a pass.

I'm asking you that if you were making decisions for EA and you were approached with the opportunity (or you approached them, however it happened) to create a deal that maximized your profit, would you really not take it?

Again, no one here is saying exclusive deals benefits us, but I don't understand how you can really hold a grudge with them doing so especially since we know if it wasn't them, it would be someone else...

[poopoop]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I'm not really asking you to give EA a pass.

I'm asking you that if you were making decisions for EA and you were approached with the opportunity (or you approached them, however it happened) to create a deal that maximized your profit, would you really not take it?

Again, no one here is saying exclusive deals benefits us, but I don't understand how you can really hold a grudge with them doing so especially since we know if it wasn't them, it would be someone else...

From a business standpoint obviously it's a good thing for them to maximize their profits. To be honest EA is pretty gully when it comes to the business side of things. I'm not looking at it from a is it good business or not perspective though. I'm looking at it from what effect does it have on the gamer. Selfish? Maybe, but that's what I'm concerned with. Whats good for them isn't necessarily whats good for me. I think they go way too far worrying about what's good for them at times to the point that it becomes bad for me.

I don't even have a grudge against EA, just some of the things they do. The last DLC I bought was from a EA published game (not a sports game though). They do some good things some bad things. This is one of the bad things they do.

[kbmnm247]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

First of all there have been competing products on the consoles since the exclusive agreements were signed:

Backbreaker
Black College Football Experience
Backyard Football
Family Fun Football
All Pro Football 2K8
Blitz II the League

Seems like all of those are football games to me. Sure they don't have the NFL or NCAA license but they are footballI ask for an NFL or NCAA game I can get and you give me an arcade game, and 2 family games, and none of them NFL or NCAA. And most of them are 2+ years old. That's like me saying what adventure game can I buy this year and you telling me Super Mario. Good one.. And as I've stated before, if you don't like the fact that other companies don't have the right to make an NFL game or an NCAA game then TAKE IT UP WITH THE SPORTS. Yes, I suppose it is the NFL's fault they accepted a $500 million deal when they would have only gotten maybe half of that in the same time frame. They are not in the game selling business nor do they care about the gaming industry. They were approached with a large sum of money to do absolutely nothing, can't fault them really. I just think it's kind of slimy and lazy for EA to try this tactic, which it's clear they did.

There is no merit at all here to criticize EA for DLC due to the exclusive agreement. This would be occurring just the same as it would if we had ESPN 2K11 coming this fall. Why you say? That's not true you say? If there was competition EA would not be doing it you say? Uh yeah they would because there's no one out there in their right mind who is going to say "Wow, I was going to buy NCAA 12 by EA over ESPN2K12 College football but then I don't like the fact that you have to pay $2.99 to advance the dynasty so now I'm going to buy ESPN's game instead." They'd be not buying it because ESPN2k12 would just be a flat out better game, which would mean EA would have to put out a feature like this for free in order to take a share of the market. If it wasn't a better game then that means that competition worked and EA put their all into their football game efforts and made huge strides which would be great for me and heck I might be willing to pay $3 extra for a feature like this. Anyway, I guess I just can't see how you can say for sure that the same thing would happen when you are shooting me down for saying that they wouldn't charge. It's the "same" opinion just opposite ends of the spectrum except mine makes a little more sense because competition between vendors is good for the customer.

Don't believe that? Think that argument is bogus? Well how about this, if there was a 2K NFL/NCAA game you can almost bet on the fact that there'd be some sort of DLC made by that company as well. The bottom line here though is the DLC is, as has been stated, a minor feature that is not going to influence anyone here as to be a game changer in the product they are buying in regards to competition vs. no-competition. Why can I almost bet on that fact? NBA2k11 is probably the most feature robust and best sim sports game out there this year. Guess how much DLC they charge you for? None. And they have more modes in their game this year than EA has ever put in their games. Jordan Mode is great, so is My Player, as well as every jersey practically ever worn by teams and awesome commentary, presentation, and franchise modes, etc. To say that they would charge when they already don't is funny.

EA's football games compete against ALL sports games. Some people can only afford a couple of sports games a year and often they will choose between Madden or NBA...or NCAA football vs. MLB the show. This whole argument of apples vs. apples is nonsense...if you're hungry and you're at the market you're looking at all the various fruits, they are all competing for your money.
So even if one throws out the entire argument of EA has competition from other football products, even without them being licensed, it's pretty ridiculous to say that they have no competition considering the quantity and quality of sports (and even non-sports) games that sit on the shelves beside Madden and NCAA now every year. People want to play with the players and teams and stadiums and uniforms they see on Saturday/Sunday. If the licenses didn't matter as you are trying to imply, EA wouldn't have spend half of a billion dollars on them. I'm not going to waste any more words on that part of your argument.

To be fair most of the points you are trying to make can be backed up by things that have already happened.

Also, NBA2K crapped all over NBA Live/Elite and has no DLC and tons more modes, options, and in depth sports material than Madden/NCAA ever has. Heck, NFL2k5 has more than Madden/NCAA ever has. To say they'd be charging for DLC when they never have and are still making chart-topping games is laughable.

[poopoop]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

Dude said Backyard Football...



hold up...backyard football....



...backyard football. LOL wow.

Spoiler

back
yard
football

and family fun football..c'mon

[CDazzle91]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I understand why they want to charge for everything, I mean they make more money that way, you can't blame them. On the flip side, though I am pretty upset about it because it's just bad PR. I mean the fact that they say look at all this new stuff we PUT IN the game. When it's really not in the game, but DLC. That would be like going to a restaurant and having the restaurant ask you what dressing you want on your salad, then after you've eaten you get this extra charge for dressing. It's just going to make people angry. Granted, I'll still play the game, but it's frustrating.

[roadman]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I understand why they want to charge for everything, I mean they make more money that way, you can't blame them. On the flip side, though I am pretty upset about it because it's just bad PR. I mean the fact that they say look at all this new stuff we PUT IN the game. When it's really not in the game, but DLC. That would be like going to a restaurant and having the restaurant ask you what dressing you want on your salad, then after you've eaten you get this extra charge for dressing. It's just going to make people angry. Granted, I'll still play the game, but it's frustrating.

Very similar to my experience with McDonalds about 6 months ago. Been ordering grilled chicken sandwiches with extra barbecue sauce every so often. One day, ordered the extra sauce, 39 cents please. I was very reluctant, but because the sauce was already thrown at me, I paid for it. Never have ordered the extra sauce again. I was angry initially because I didn't know prior to ordering the extra sauce about the extra charge.

At least there is 6 week advance warning on this extra feature.

[NDAlum]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

Just like when the Double cheeseburger turned into the McDouble and lost a piece of cheese!

lame!