The reason for really good EA Sports games now?

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by Thinking Out Loud

Most of the things you say I would have fully agreed with during any other next-gen Madden dev cycle but not this year. I have always felt the exact same way about EA seeming to waste resources trying to reinvent the wheel in Madden when the ways other games did the same thing were better. However, this year it seems EA is taking some tried and true ways of making a quality football simulation and putting their resources behind improving those methods. In the case of DCAM, this really should add to the immersion of a network broadcast because it has been done by actual camera people. One of 2k's sports greatest assets is that from the very beginning they have been humble enough to copy what is already done well. One of EA's football games greatest liabilities has been trying to do things better before learning how to do them right. This year, every indication is that EA football is genuinely trying to learn how do things right from the experts and allowing the experts to show EA how to use its' superior resources, to do those things better. Not just presentation either but putting Looman back on franchise, bringing in a former collegiate QB that worked on FIFA/Fight Night to be GM and Advance Team probably with talented former EA Canada devs. The EA football world seems to be actually changing for the better, OnlyLT. If it is, hopefully you and others, understandable skepticism about Madden will not become unreasonable bitterness that prevents you all from enjoying this new Madden era.

I agree with you. I'm just saying that everyone, even EA, has a limit on resources. I'm just wondering if what ever DCAM is costing, will be worth the loss of resources that could be spent elsewhere. Will it be better and add to the immersion? It has to be. Can't help but be. I'm not disputing that. What I'm saying is that will the cost of doing it in the grandiose way that EA typically does things, even if they are essential things, be worth it?

Could they have made an immersive presentation upgrade without spending "X" amount of dollars on DCAM? Considering 2K did just that, I'm going to say yes. If Tiburon had been even remotely trying to recreate Football broadcast before, and were unable to do it, I'd say yeah, they need this whole DCAM thing. But they haven't, so all I'm asking is will the delta between DCAM and hiring NFL film crews and just actually trying to do broadcast angles by approximation, be so great that someone who has never read the blogs would really notice and say "yeah, that's much better and worth what ever it cost"? I don't know that, but I would tend to doubt it. And if, IF, that is the case, then how could I not at least ponder whether SOME of the reason why EA went this route is because, like I said, they like to get their bylines of how they "changing the industry".

At the end of the day, I do feel that something is a little different this year. Probably because I'm an idiot. And I do think that they are showing signs of acknowledging that they may not have been doing a lot of thing the right way, but the company has given me reason that at least make my suspicions plausible. That's all I'm saying.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by Thinking Out Loud

When I said restructure I was referring to the NFL changing how they collected revenue for non-exclusive licenses before the exclusive one with EA. For example, if EA tells the NFL they are only willing to pay $100 million for an exclusive license and EA then just decides to offer a non-exclusive license for $50 million ALL upfront to, potentially, multiple game companies. If just Sony, 2k and EA obtain a non-exclusive NFL license, the NFL made $50 million more upfront than it would from EA's exclusive offer and EA paid $50 million less than they offered EA for an exclusive license with about a 9 year marketing/development lead over any new NFL game competition.

In that hypothetical, yes, but there is a ton of things that have to happen for that to fall in place like that and the NFL would never agree to that until they had all the parties ready to sign off on it. They aren't going to take less on the belief or hope that they could get more from other parties.