Exclusive Rights: A Good Thing?

[Jistic]

The only thing worse than people still complaining about EA's exclusive deal two years after the fact is an idiot from IGN trying to convince me that we're better off for it...

Just wow.

[SPTO]

A world of convergence is NEVER a good thing. When you have so few companies owning 99% of essential and entertainment aspects then the consumer is always hurt.

I've given up complaining about EA's eclusive deal but i'll never give up saying that it's bad for the industry in the long run.

[Graphik]

That article sounded more like a rep from EA had a gun to the writers head the whole time. It was a kiss-*** fest and quite frankly, I would'nt be suprised if EA did'nt submit that piece themselves.

I've already stop caring about the deal, its whatever at this point. As long as their are other genres out there that I play, Sports will always be there but they certainly aren't my life anymore like it used to.

Anyway, a few things from that article I found disturbing:

Quote:

Essentially, the possibilities are endless, from an NFL kids game to an Xbox Live football trivia game to an NFL cheerleader dancing game -- football experiences that we have never seen before.

All of which could of most likely been coupled into 1 single disc of Madden. Hell, 2K had a trivia game, crib and FPF which were somewhat independent to the game itself. EA will most likely create games which could of been coupled with a game already, ala NFL Head Coach.

Quote:

But in the next three years, football fans will be able to play five, maybe six -- maybe more -- types of NFL-licensed videogames in total, games that would not have been developed without the NFL agreement. At the very least, EA has demonstrated a commitment to expanding on the NFL license when it very well could have updated rosters and sold millions of copies to disgruntled gamers. If there has to be an exclusive deal, then as football fans, that commitment is all we can ask for.

Which goes back to my first point. We all know EA is out to get money which I'm fine by but instead of freeing the license up for any newcomer or any company willing to give the license a shot, they hog it for themselves. We should all be in agreement as to how EA creates its games. One word: lacking. So future installments can be churned out.

Its cool though, I hate this article for the simple fact that they sugarcoated the entire thing to read like a EA press release. Innovation lies in the form of multiple avenues working to achieve greatness. In other words, innovation can only stem from diffrent companies giving it thier best shot. Remember a few years ago when we had about 5 baseball games, you knew that at least 1 of these games would of been the best for you. Each brought something diffrent to the table and you eventually found that game. You wont get that anymore. All you get is a "take it or leave it" approach and in the end, its impossible to be satisfied.

[blackceasar]

After reading that article I felt like a reporter standing in front of the White House Press Secretary listening to him tell us how everything they do is for the good of us. Pure BS

[heelsman22]

"The possibilities are endless..."

But the improvement is minimal.

[solja]

we are video game addicts ,sports addicts and we have to adhere to slavery!!!..

this exclusive thing is sports video game hell, i never wished for this not even the best game to be the exclusive..

i would be pissed if we had all 2k no madden cause everybody needs a choice!! even gameday should have still been around cause even those games have something that is good that the better devs learn from and use to better their allready good game!

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by solja

we are video game addicts ,sports addicts and we have to adhere to slavery!!!.. this exclusive thing is sports video game hell, i never wished for this not even the best game to be the exclusive.. i would be pissed if we had all 2k no madden cause everybody needs a choice!! even gameday should have still been around cause even those games have something that is good that the better devs learn from and use to better their allready good game!

Did you just compare license exclusivity to slavery? If you did, time to take a step back and get some perspective.

[DrJones]

Speaking as someone who worked at EA for 7 years, I found that article to be nothing short of embarrassing.

The reasons these extra titles are being made are:

1. To offset the exclusivity costs.
2. To "grow the football market" by getting consumers to buy more than one title. The market for sports games are relatively static: adding a Head Coach mode to Madden isn't going to sell many (if any) more copies, whereas a separate game may well be purchased by gamers that already own Madden.

Now, this is perfectly defensible from a business perspective. And the games themselves may turn out to great, who knows? But to make the argument that exclusivity is therefore GOOD for gamers insults everybody's intelligence. For EA Marketing to propose this? Well, that's what they're being paid for, I suppose. For IGN? Brown-nosing and hackery of the worst kind. Bleah.