EA asking for a discount on dues for the NFL license.

[pratojr79]

How many times does this have to be said? The NFL proposed the exclusive rights to EA, not the other way around.

Get your info straight.

[Kaanyr Vhok]

Quote: Originally Posted by pratojr79

How many times does this have to be said? The NFL proposed the exclusive rights to EA, not the other way around. Get your info straight.

Where did you hear that? EA admits they requested it just like they did with NBA and NHL.

EA had already hit up the NFL several times and was turned down. They had NASCAR and Fifa, grabbed Arena football and the NCAA in the same year.

[Gordy748]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

How they do business is quite obvious. And it's certainly working for them. They are super profitable, they are easily the #1 sport in America. They didn't get there by being dumb. So I find it particularly funny that a bunch of guys sitting around a message board act like they know what's better for the NFL from a business standpoint than the NFL does. No one here has any real insight in to their operations or their numbers. No one here has any real clue or inside knowledge as to why the NFL makes the decisions they do. And the NFLPA page? Really? That's like reading TASS during the cold war.

As someone that does business strategy for one of the Sony divisions, I have to describe this as one of the most farcical posts I've yet seen.

It's pretty easy to see how NFL makes decisions, even a home economics student can see that. It's a business, and so makes decisions based mainly on revenues. Rule changes to allow higher scoring games make the games more watchable, attracting more fans and, ergo, more money. Likewise exclusive deals. Firms like Reebok and EA get exclusivity in exchange for revenues.

There will be some minimum quality clause in the contracts, but this doesn't guarantee the fans of NFL will receive good value for money when they buy their jerseys or their games. Indeed, they (we) shouldn't. A business like Reebok or EA has to recoup its license fees somehow. With no competition, and in an artificial monopoly, the companies turn to recouping as much money as possible. Tuning down the product costs is a simple way of achieving this, at the cost of quality to the end consumer. Us.

It's a big reason why exclusivity deals aren't normally good news for consumers. And one reason why the Supreme Court ruled against NFL's apparel deal, which you may have read in publications like the Wall Street Journal.

[King_B_Mack]

Anyone else find it kind of funny and sickening that EA is asking for a discount on the cost of the license cause they essentially don't want to pay for a half-service? When the deal went down, the first next-gen NFL game was stripped of all the features that people actually bought Madden games for and they've been half stepping everyone ever since by slowing adding back things and touting them as new. As much as a couple weeks ago there were discussions in the Elite forum about charing halfprice for the game since it wasn't a complete game and EA developers wanted an explanation why they should have to charge less for the game. Now here is EA feeling they could be getting a half service/not the full experience and feel they shouldn't have to pay full price for it....karma much? And people wonder why so many people hate EA and don't mind seeing bad things happen to them.

[Franchise408]

I can't wait until the day EA no longer has the exclusive license, and I never have to buy a Madden game ever again.

[jWILL253]

I honestly think that the reason Madden has been sub par in this generation is because of the effect the exclusivity deal has... on EA's bottom line.

It's like Gordy was saying: when you go for an exclusive license that has an extremely high price point, you wanna save as much money as possible. And doing so may cut into money that goes for product development. So therefor, Madden suffered because of that.

But, we should remember that the exclusivity deal went down WAY before Peter Moore became the new face for EA. So, I expect that Moore probably realized the effect that the NFL licensing dues had on his flagship product. So now, here comes EA asking for a discount. My feeling is, next time around, the license won't be renewed. In fact, once January comes and goes, either the NFL or EA may OPT OUT of the current deal a year early, once the final sales come in.

And, let's not pretend that EA hasn't had any good sports games, and they're just a bunch of vultures: NHL 11? FIFA 11? Fight Night Round 4? NBA Live 10 (shame. EA SURE knows how to kill progress)? Even Madden 10? Not only were those good games in their own right, but they all came from an overall change of focus (from tourney/arcade style to sim), and more resources and money to spend on product development.

In my opinion, EA KNOWS that Madden is suffering, and is pursuing the discount to put more money into product development. But, given what Gordy said, the NFL will probably continue the exclusivity until American Needle wins it's case. And, who knows? 2K Sports may get an exclusive deal, and do the EXACT SAME THING EA DID...

[Kramer5150]

Quote: Originally Posted by pratojr79

How many times does this have to be said? The NFL proposed the exclusive rights to EA, not the other way around. Get your info straight.

I would suggest YOU get your info straight before posting.
A simple Google search will tell you that you are indeed wrong.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by CowherPower

I would suggest YOU get your info straight before posting. A simple Google search will tell you that you are indeed wrong.

In the end, does it really matter who started what? He said, she said, yada, yada, yada.

Bottom line, it still takes two to make a deal happen.