No one said it was EASY...we are trying to tell you in spite of it not being easy, a company could still do it. Don't blame Live and 2k for another potential company not wanting to take a risk. do you think Steve Jobs had it easy when he was trying to build his first computer in his garage and tried to carve out market share? Look at Apple and the iPhone now.. they now hold over HALF the smartphone market share in the world... there was a time though when the iphone never existed and the world was dominated by Blackberry, Samsung, Motorola, etc...
Look at when Myspace was like the place to be online in social. There was a time when Myspace has over 88% of the social media market share... until some smart kid (from Harvard lol) came along and looked at the 800lb gorilla that was Myspace (and a few others) and said "so what, I can make a better product".. and he did..and he carved out some market share... then took over...
Again, whatever is going on with EA Sports and the NBA is between EA Sports and the NBA... this has nothing to do with someone else making a game or not. Im just going back to what you said about "they keep missing the mark, they need to step aside some SOMEONE ELSE CAN put a game out".. someone else can put a game out right now. Sure, there's money and all sorts of things that have to be taken into account but thats not EA's fault. I mean honestly there's nothing stopping me from putting out my own smart phone to compete with Apple's iPhone.. granted I don't because of Apples market share..... market share... that term.. you brought it up again to defend your point about EA.
Maybe you just need to choose your words differently then. Yes, EA and 2k Sports have all of the market share of NBA video games... But do you understand market share is a PERCENTAGE? like.. umm.. X out of 100%? Its a pie.. they both take up the whole pie because no one else has brought a knife to the table, to cut out a slice for themselves. There's never market share thats just "out there"... you gain market share and you loose market share.. and some other compaies throw their hat into the right (or knife to the table) and carve out some market share as well. Yes, do you realize these two companies are always going to hold 100% of the market share because its 100% of the market divided by two.. but its not split down the middle, one has more than the other for various reasons.. game quality, brand recognition, fan base, etc.. ALL of these factor in to just how that pie chart looks like.
Here's something else you need to understand about market share... it's not "given" to a company. Its not like there's this "market share God" that said okay.. you get this much market share, and you over here you get this much.. and you over there you get this much. MARKET SHARE IS EARNED. IT'S NOT GIVEN.. and when I say "earn" I use that term loosley...I mean earn in the sense that companies do whatever they can to get a bigger peice of it.. but again, the pie doesnt have to be divided by just two people.
Granted Madden has 100% of the NFL football video game market share because they own the rights to the NFL... in that sense it's not a free market.. but in a way, it was.. someone else could have bought the rights.. EA just was willing to meet the NFL's asking price.. but again.. others could have tried to get it.
There's this AWESOME documentary on the History Channel.. I don't think it airs anymore but you can watch the episodes on the history channels site.. its called "The Men Who Built America"..and its pretty badass.. it followed Vanderbilt (railorads), Rockefeller (oil), Andrew Carnage (steel), and JP Morgan (banking and electric).. and there are times where they cut away to modern day moguls (trump, mark cuban, etc etc) and they all said the same thing.. these guys succeded because they carved out their own nitches because they took risks when other's would not...
Again, another man's success is not another man's excuse for not trying. Some people have balls, and some dont.. it's that simple.
But again.. market share.. look it up.. really read about what that means.