So how much longer does EA have a MONOPOLY on NFL, NCAA Franchise?

[Cebby]

Exclusive licensing has been done since the first video game was made. It's done with clothes. Try and go print off Georgetown Hoyas shirts and sell them in DC. Georgetown will sue the pants off you. Why do companies have to get the rights of a song to put it in a commercial? It would be absolutely ridiculous to take the NFL to court to tell them that they have no control over the marketing of their own product.

[CAJUN COMMISH]

2K has done a much better job, IMO, on the NBA, College Hoops, and Hockey. Pro football really depends on the year in the past and college football - well EA has been a million times better when there was another game out. Seemingly, NCAA always makes improvements whereas the Madden franchise has moved sluggishly foward, perhaps even back some in certain aspects.

I like competition as well and want it. This would be the one game I would say "yea, good luck" as far as beating because it is simply so deep and so rich.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by jrcain

The problem I have with these exclusive license on an ethical business end is that it absolutely restricts competition but also acts as a trust/monopoly with the company it has sold its license too. The biggest example is with the NFL and Directv. This exclusive license has limited the NFL's market base, thus going in complete contradiction to any logical business practice (considering TimeWarner/Comcast would offer the same programming for the same price). But the NFL made an amount of money up front that will indirectly be put upon the consumer 2 to 3 fold. The problem with this is that now Directv can charge whatever price it wants for this package, it costs almost $100 more than the MLB or NBA packages! This was not the case until this exclusive package existed. Also the cost of new equipment and change of service provider etc... Now how this ties into video games is what if Madden starts to sell at a different price point than the rest of video games? This is when the line starts to blur and it increases the similarities to a trust or monopoly. Anti-trust legislation would be needed because the exclusive license is creating an unfair market advantage, not to the NFL licensed game but for the hardware/software of a new different market. This is the same if the number one motor company would sell exclusive rights to Shell as the exclusive oil for its brand of cars. The car company would then be effecting a different market (oil) and thus anti-trust legislation would likely be invoked because if this happened with every company the consumer of oil would be screwed over because each company had to pay for something that was normally free or at a rate of open access to the market. Another analogy would be is if the NFL decided to say NFL games can only be watched on Samsung TV's. Thus reshuffling the whole television industry. ODogg you may be confusing patents and exclusive licenseship. Exclusive license often are as sponsorship or superfluous to the market the license is bidded upon and thus they rarely ever restrict the competition of the different market. I think rightly that the video game industry is less likely to bring enough political/judicial pressure to warrant repercussions but this issue is very much questionable in legal terms.

jrcain, you are possibly right, if EA announced Madden 08 would cost $99.95 this year because they felt like charging that then perhaps there might be a legal issue, but even with your direcTV analogy, the truth is Comcast and Time Warner certainly have deep pockets to sue and they have not, as far as I know, ever won any victory in respect to bringing the NFL to their cable companies. But getting back to EA charging more than fair market price for Madden/NCAA, we both know this will never happen because it would not sell well at all so there is no real point in speculating on this aspect.

The closest I've seen to any sort of legal interference in these deals was with baseball possibly selling to DirecTV and there were some Congressmen that advised against it, but nothing was official and it was just that, talk. I also do recall a while back someone in Congress mentioned they wanted the DirecTV deal with the NFL to end but again, just talk, there's really nothing legal anyone can do or trust me, someone would have been doing something by now as this has been ongoing for years. As much as companies sue each other over trivial stuff I'm sure this has not been 'overlooked' by their legal departments, especially considering the amount of profits that are being missed out on here.

Once again i'll say it, this is all wishful thinking by 2K fans and/or EA haters more than anything in regards to any sort of real legal possibility.

[kneebon5]

there is no monopoly because Sony or Microsoft could make an NFL or NCAA game, so there for there is a chance of another game. But they dont make it, so you are left with one game. 3 groups able to make a product is not a monopoly.

Unless i am wrong and they have more than 3rd party rights? anyone have any idea on that one?

[dbeth]

EA owns the whole ball of wax on NCAA, NFL and Arena. No one else can make a licensed football game.

It's the MLB deal that 2k has 3rd party rights. That's why Sony, Microsoft, and even Nintendo can make their own licensed game.

[GTheorenHobbes]

Sony or Microsoft could make a baseball game under the deal 2k got, but not football. That's the EA monopoly we're talking about.

I'm glad someone brought up the baseball thing that happened this year. There was talk of going to an exclusive and Kerry, a big Red Sox fan, made enough noise to stop that from happening. And baseball, as I pointed out above, is the ONLY sport with an anti-trust exemption, so it's kind've ironic. Too bad Kerry wasn't a videogame football fan or maybe we would've been in business on that dark day a couple of years ago when EA conspired to monopolize the market.

[gschwendt]

The only reason why MS & Sony are allowed to make a baseball game is because 2K stated that they'll allow first party companies to make baseball games but won't allow other 3rd parties. They did that specifically to limit EA... they said they're not afraid of competition, they welcome it and thus want Sony and MS to make competing games.

[kneebon5]

ok, i didnt know that EA had the whole thing wrapped up. But still there is nothing we can do about it.

I wonder if anyone could sign a deal with confrences or the schools, and work around like that?