NFL Antitrust: What it Means for the Sports Video Game Industry

[Segagendude]

"What this may mean is Madden could have only AFC teams, and 2K could have only NFC teams".

Yuck.That would kill video football period in my opinion.

[tonnyrat]

Those of you who are complaining about missing teams, what if the games came out with an editor similar to the one found in Winning Eleven.

The English Premier League has an exclusive deal with EA, Konami only has the ability to license 2 English clubs per game. They counteract that by offering an in-depth editor which allows us (the community) to fix/add the missing teams. It isn't like the game will ship with less than 32 teams. The non-licensed teams will have identifiable names and colors. With Winning Eleven, it usually takes a week for someone to release a fully updated file.

Imagine, with a 2K Share-like system, both EA and 2K sports would be able to offer incomplete products (a worst case scenario) where the end user could potentially 'fix' the official team names and uniforms.

Keep in mind that the game would need the NFLPA license for the players. WE has real players on fake teams mimmicing their real-life counterparts. This means a lot less work for us since players can be modeled correctly. The only thing missing is a few logos, color scheme and team name. Only issue here is the stadium, but I think we can live with that.

[Cryolemon]

Quote: Originally Posted by tonnyrat

Those of you who are complaining about missing teams, what if the games came out with an editor similar to the one found in Winning Eleven. The English Premier League has an exclusive deal with EA, Konami only has the ability to license 2 English clubs per game. They counteract that by offering an in-depth editor which allows us (the community) to fix/add the missing teams. It isn't like the game will ship with less than 32 teams. The non-licensed teams will have identifiable names and colors. With Winning Eleven, it usually takes a week for someone to release a fully updated file. Imagine, with a 2K Share-like system, both EA and 2K sports would be able to offer incomplete products (a worst case scenario) where the end user could potentially 'fix' the official team names and uniforms. Keep in mind that the game would need the NFLPA license for the players. WE has real players on fake teams mimmicing their real-life counterparts. This means a lot less work for us since players can be modeled correctly. The only thing missing is a few logos, color scheme and team name. Only issue here is the stadium, but I think we can live with that.

Exactly. That's exactly how it would work. Which, while not ideal, is a good idea.

[sportzbro]

Interesting article, but a game without all the teams would suck

[djordan]

You guys may like the idea but there are more casual fans out there.

They wouldn't buy the game knowing there is only half the teams available.

Think outside the box lol

[tonnyrat]

Quote: Originally Posted by djordan

You guys may like the idea but there are more casual fans out there. They wouldn't buy the game knowing there is only half the teams available. Think outside the box lol

Winning Eleven sells pretty well and they have a bunch of non-licensed teams in the game...

Given the existence of 4 major English clubs, 2 are left out (in other words: UNLICENSED) every year. That means instead of having Chelsea and their official uniform, you have a team called East London Blue. The team isn't MISSING, it is unlicensed. It exists. The players on the team are the real players in real life. The formation and tactics they use are based off of the real team.

Instead of having the NY Jets, you could have the NY Planes. A team with a generic green/white color scheme as a uniform. You would still have the real players though.

An editor could remedy this problem. Like I said, Winning Eleven hasn't had problems with casual fans.

[Cryolemon]

Quote: Originally Posted by djordan

You guys may like the idea but there are more casual fans out there. They wouldn't buy the game knowing there is only half the teams available. Think outside the box lol

You telling me that Winning Eleven has no casual soccer fans buy it lol? No one is saying make a game with only 16 teams. They are saying make the other 16 generic and let people edit them. IIRC this doesn't effect the players association license necessarily, so they'd even have the players, just not the team logo, full name or stadium.

[roadman]

Isssh.

I received an headache just reading all that.

I like more games on the market, but not at the expense of editing teams names, players, jerseys, socks, cleats, and headgear.

I just don't have time for all that.

I wouldn't buy football games anymore.