Judge Certifies Class-Action Football Game Pricing Lawsuit Against EA

[TajDeni]

Im not a lawyer so i dont pretend to know if they case has a real chance of succeeding or not....

but i do know guarilla strong arm tactics when i see it...And EA strong-arm the comp by playing a mean game of big bank takes little bank

can someone verify or disprove this claim....didnt madden initally drop at standard price and then change its price later....or didnt 2k drop like a week early or something like that...

[khaliib]

What is funny, is that this is exactly what happened within a similiar case I was involved in. A group of "Non-Lawyers" were locked in a room to decide the case according to the information presented to them during the trial. And there were some who always spoke down to other jurors understanding because their concluding perspective(s) about the case differed. The case lingered a very long time because the focus shifted to an "I'm right and you're wrong" atmosphere (did I mention none were lawyers!!!).


If this case goes to trial, there "Will" be an asumption factor (from personal experience) because a jurors will not look at the claim/counter-claims from a black and white letter of the law viewpoint, but from what it looks like on the surface to them (key word "Surface").

If the claimant list is very large (the reason it's stil open) the "Perception" to a jury would not bode well for EA.

Although these cases are difficult to prove, as some have noted. The possibility of a loss and the damages that could be awarded based off of the concluding "Perception" of the jury, no matter how many prior cases were not successful, is not a place any company wants to be in.

Again, the fact the a Judge certified the claim instead of throwing in out, opens the doors of "Possible", which would allow them to present the "Perception" to the understanding of a group of regular folk. The biggest hurdle for their claim has been cleared.

BTW, I am not an attorney and have zero trial experience (participated though) in AntiTrust Law, so I don't have grounds to say you're perspetive is right or wrong.

Any good lawyer would tell you that no case, even if the facts are on your side, is a definite win when argued before a jury in a Court of Law.
Only a foolish attorney would promise such a thing!!!

It would be interesting to know were these former Football Game Developers stood on this claim.
989 Studios
Acclaim

[Tbo24]

I know that Madden is $60 like every other game, but don't they charge you for alot of the game content? Not being able to buy used copies, because of the whole paying for online play issue was kind of a bummer. Don't they charge for the Madden Moments too? Im not 'siding' with anyone, but a $60 game that charges for a majority of game content, can add up.

EDIT: I don't think thats part of the argument though. Sorry for babbling about something I know nothing about, lol.

[Kaanyr Vhok]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tyrant8RDFL

What your forgetting is that the NFL ask for bidders to own the rights for the NFL license. Thats a huge piece of information. EA did not go to them. The NFL made it clear. You want to make a football game then you have to pay us!!! The NFL does this with pretty much everything. Satellite TV anyone??? Hats??? Jerseys???

Yes EA did go to them.
I have most posted a couple links in the past. A rep for EA admitted to that they tried to get the license several times and were turned down. So yes the NFL did offer it but only after turning EA down several times.

[zav]

anyone who knows anything about law knows that they dont intend to win this case. they intend to settle with EA. The case isnt strong but its viable which is always a dead giveaway for an upcoming settlement.

oh a much stronger case would be to try and nab them for monopolizing. Itd be tough but i think that would would win in court. Also you can go after the NFL as a trust(already done and won for hats) but apply it to madden sales essentially making it so that each team would be able to choose if they wanted to sign off their rights to madden or 2k or whatever comes up

edit: the fact that the game cost 60 and every other game does as well isnt the point. The point is that there is no competition which allows them to price the game freely. Because EA eliminated the competition by choice then the market is artificial. A good lawyer could win this easily but in all likelihood its going to settle which is why im getting in on this right now.... if it settles for a few mil and 10k people join as plaintiffs... we might all get a lil somethin

[JaymeeAwesome]

I urge anyone who does not agree with this class action to not join into it. The outcome will not breed competition, it'll only hit the financial backing of the only NFL game in town. It's only up to tue NFL to allow competition, not EA. If any of you want a better football video game for the years to come, please don't join this suit. It'll only hurt us, the gamers, for the next few years.

[SmashMan]

Quote: Originally Posted by zav

edit: the fact that the game cost 60 and every other game does as well isnt the point. The point is that there is no competition which allows them to price the game freely.

I wouldn't just dismiss that (other games' prices) as so many others are. The fact is, there is a generally agreed-upon "typical" price for new video games. Last gen it was $50, this gen is $60. There aren't separate pricing models for every genre of game. You (the general you, not specific) could argue that there shouldn't be a "typical" price, but there is.

I don't see how you can look at previous games (2004 and prior) and games after exclusivity (2006 and later) and prove that 2005 wasn't an anomaly. (You can infer it, but inferring is not proving.) Yes, EA lowered their price to compete against a lower-priced alternative. Yes, EA's price went back to normal after that alternative ceased to exist the following year; but I'd argue they did so to return to their usual pricing scheme. They didn't charge any more than they previously did (2004 and prior), which again seems to show that 2005 was an anomaly.

[moylan1234]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tbo24

EDIT: I don't think thats part of the argument though. Sorry for babbling about something I know nothing about, lol.

don't be sorry about that. If no one babbled about things they don't know about then places like OS wouldn't exist!