Judge Certifies Class-Action Football Game Pricing Lawsuit Against EA

[Steve_OS]

Gamasutra has some new info on the lawsuit.

Quote:

"A U.S. district judge has certified a class-action anti-trust lawsuit against Electronic Arts that alleges the company illegally inflated prices for its football titles after attaining exclusive rights to league licenses. In a 67-page complaint [PDF], the legal team specifically cites the 2004 pricing battle between Sega and Take-Two's NFL2K5, which retailed for just $19.95, and EA's Madden NFL 2005, which was lowered from a $49.95 asking price to $29.95 in November of that year. A month after this price decrease, EA signed its exclusive licensing deal with the NFL, following with similar deals for the NCAA and Arena Football leagues in later months. The next year's Madden NFL 2006 faced no competition in the football game market at its usual $49.95 price point."

Gamespot chimes in as well.

Quote:

"We believe EA forced consumers to pay an artificial premium on Madden NFL video games" Berman continued. "We intend to prove that EA could inflate prices on their sports titles because these exclusive licenses restrained trade and competition for interactive sports software."

What do you think happens, out of all this?

[JaymeeAwesome]

Ummm how is this possible? EA charges as much for a video game as every other new game on the market. $60 xbox 360 and ps3, $50 for Wii, and $40 for ps2 (I think). I for one will not be joining this lawsuit because I don't find it right to fault a video game maker for landing exclusive rights to make the game and not charge any more than any other game. The only object I feel that falls under that assumption is apple's iPhone and the AT&T exclusivity.

[solidsnake916]

uhhh Where can we join the litigation..? lol Well very interesting. One day hope to see another 2k football on the next gen.

[DirtyJerz32]

Nothing whatsoever. It'll be the same price next year. When we get 2 NFL games again I'll care.

[solidsnake916]

Quote: Originally Posted by DirtyJerz32

Nothing whatsoever. It'll be the same price next year. When we get 2 NFL games again I'll care.

More then likely...

[TracerBullet]

Wasn't 2k4 $50?

[Rocky]

Quote: Originally Posted by DirtyJerz32

Nothing whatsoever. It'll be the same price next year. When we get 2 NFL games again I'll care.

I agree, but I have to wonder if EA will risk a messy legal fight to renew the license in 2013.

[NAdkins01]

Honestly this has more merit than other frivolous lawsuits that have been brought against EA based on the fact that they quickly lowered the price to match it and increased it back up shortly after obtaining the exclusive license. It it will be interesting to see what happens.