NBA rejects EA's initial bid for exclusivity

[quote name='bmulligan']You monopoly theorists are misguided. EA buying the licensing rights to any sports organization is NOT a 'monopoly', it's a licensing agreement. You people are acting out of pure emotion and absence of rational thought. The NFL OWNS their game and the associated names and images. They have every right to 'sell' the trademarks to anyone they choose.

Have you ever thought of blaming the NFL and staging a boycott? After all, THEY are the ones who sold out, EA was just there to hand over the money. How about NOT buying that Tom Brady jersey, the Budweiser beer, the endzone ticket. How about NOT watching the games on TV and purposefully not supporting their advertisers. What if Sega was the one to pony up to the NFL, would you be trashing them too? I doubt it because you people were EA haters to begin with and will trumpet anything that substantiates your cause. In this case, however, your cause is baseless.
[/quote]

I agree that this is a definetly not a monopoly. It is one step closer to becoming one but they are still far from it.

At first, I would've blamed the NFL just as much as EA. It sounded like the NFL was selling the NFL license and EA just happened to be in the right place at the right time. However, a week later, the NBA announces that they decline EA's initial bid. It doesn't seem likely that both the NFL and NBA both decided to sell their license in the same month. To me, it seems like EA is dumping a lot of money in their laps to try and buy their way out of competing the SEGA. This is why I, along with many others, are directing their hate towards EA.
 
This definitely is not a monopoly, nor is it legally wrong, but that doesn't mean gamers can't express their dislike for the move EA made. It wouldn't be illegal or a monopoly for the NFL to begin airing their games only on direcTV or make each game Pay Per View, but would it make the fans angry, you bet. The point is as gamers we have the right to express our displeasure with the move made by EA, but there is nothing we can do about it. To tell you the truth, I have always thought Madden was the better game of the two (although this year I bought both 2k5 and Madden), so for me it shouldn't really matter. However, who is going to step up and prevent the Madden franchise from growing stagnant. Oh, and whoever said licenses didn't matter, I'd like to know why the Arena Football League and the XFL have not done well at all in comparison to the NFL, afterall the gameplay is the same.
 
What EA did was shady, period. Call it good business are what ever you want, it's a messed up thing to do. I wonder how many NFL titles are now canceled due to this, and not to mention the development teams that got shafted due to this as well. EA aren't stupid, there gamers at heart they know what they did was a messed up thing to do, they just slit the throat of every developer thinking about making an NFL game and this is what pissed people off.

I'm not a sports fan at all, and I don't hate EA for what they did, I totally understand there a business and have a responsibility to there workers and stock holders but just taking over the whole NFL franchise cutting out the competion is just wrong. It's like if your favorite brand of shoe is Van's and Nike bought out every single shoe company including your favorite, now there forcing you to either by there shit or walk bare foot, I know that’s an extreme scenario but you get the mental picture. Yes, I know it takes two too tango, the NFL took the offer and yes pretty much sold out. But the NFL isn't a gaming Company, the NFL saw a deal and they took it, there not gamers they run a sports franchise. On the other hand EA a gaming company that started out for the love of games and lives/breathes games should have known better, but instead became a bitch for the all mighty dollar. You can call me naive if you want for thinking this way but it's the way I feel.

Now, This doesn't mean the end of other foot ball games, a company can make a fantasy football game that has nothing to do with the NFL, but NFL fans makes up the pool of the gamers that buy the game (tons of my friends are into football and aren't really gamers but they own at least 1 NFL game that isn't madden). Now they have to deal with the same game from the same company, and EA doesn't have to do a damn thing to the series if they want, since now it's the only NFL game available. This right here is what has so many of us pissed. Buying out whole franchise screws not over other developers that were making NFL games, it also screws over us since EA can charge 60 bucks for the game and there wouldn't be a damn thing you could do about it if you’re a NFL fan and want an NFL game. There just a bully at play ground right now, taking what they want and this shit has to stop. Someone needs to in the industry needs to speak up about what EA is doing.

There slogan is supposed to be "Challenge Everything", it should be "Buying Everything"..

By the way, I was saying the same crap back when they bought the Nascar license and it went almost un-noicted in the gaming industry (they took out my beloved papyrus games). By chance I also said, what's to stop them from doing this to other franchises..and for once I wish I was wrong.
 
[quote name='6669']Well if they do get the NBA, this will prove that EA is trying to create a monopoly, which means that the government can step in and stop them. I hope the NBA doesn't sellout, since I don't wanna pay $60 for a basketball game next year. We got lucky this year with the $20 price tag and the Coke $10 off and free shipping codes.[/quote]

Nonsense. A monopoly would mean that nobody else could make a basketball game. That simply would not be true. Anybody who wanted to could produce a basketball title. They just could not use the names and likenesses of NBA players or the other copyrighted material held by the NBA. The game of basketball and the structure of the league is not copyrighted and anyone can use it. The question is whether a non-licensed game can succeed on its own merits.

In the same manner, anyone could create a game about the adventures of a young wizard attending a British boarding school specializing in the education of magic users. Just so long as you don't call him Harry Potter or likewise give any of the characters name from that series. If you do a really good job it won't matter if anyone is reminded of Harry Potter. You can always say your inspiration was the works of Steve Meretzsky and that Potter kid is a ripoff of Ernie Eaglebeak while your while is a fully acknowledging homage to the original.
http://old.the-underdogs.org/Legend.htm#S301
 
Question for all you CAG'ers out there. Do you think the NHL would reject a bid from EA given their situation right now? Because I prefer NHL 2K5 over EA's game. I haven't liked EA hockey since 95' on the Genesis. I did enjoy a couple of the NHL FaceOff games on the PS1 from 989. And of course, NHL Hitz was arcade fun at it's best.
 
It would be horrific if one day, Electronic Arts gets the rights to all major sports franchises...:(

I hope that day never happens...
 
[quote name='SEGA128DC']It would be horrific if one day, Electronic Arts gets the rights to all major sports franchises...:(

I hope that day never happens...[/quote]

The horror, that more shelf space should become available for games I might actually play. The horror...
 
For the record, Power Move Wrestling would still have sold poorly if the WWF licensed game hadn't existed. Note that despite the fond memories of many who mentioned it, it only manages a 68% on GameRankings with a mere two sites even bothering to review it.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/198335.asp

This game had zero marketing behind it and was a blatant rush job translation to get product out for a new platform with little regard to whether it was a worthy product in of itself. Very similar to a later Activision turkey, Orphen for PS2, which would never have even passed consideration for localization to the US market if the company hadn't been desparate to have a launch title for the PS2.

Power Move is just another early PS1 release among many that nobody beyond a small hardcore gaming contingent remembers ever existed. When people look at my racks of PS1 games they are often astonished to discover that what they assumed was an obscure import was in fact a US release that simply came and went at retail with hardly any notice. Remember 'The Adventures of Lomax,' the Lemmings spin-off? Don't be surprised if you don't, I only have a copy because I was on the Psygnosis reveiwer list.
 
[quote name='epobirs'][quote name='SEGA128DC']It would be horrific if one day, Electronic Arts gets the rights to all major sports franchises...:(

I hope that day never happens...[/quote]

The horror, that more shelf space should become available for games I might actually play. The horror...[/quote]

So, you think there should be more shelf space for EA Sports games? Electronic Arts having a monopoly over sports games is not good for the video game industry, regardless of how much you love EA...
 
[quote name='epobirs']For the record, Power Move Wrestling would still have sold poorly if the WWF licensed game hadn't existed. Note that despite the fond memories of many who mentioned it, it only manages a 68% on GameRankings with a mere two sites even bothering to review it.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/198335.asp

This game had zero marketing behind it and was a blatant rush job translation to get product out for a new platform with little regard to whether it was a worthy product in of itself. Very similar to a later Activision turkey, Orphen for PS2, which would never have even passed consideration for localization to the US market if the company hadn't been desparate to have a launch title for the PS2.

Power Move is just another early PS1 release among many that nobody beyond a small hardcore gaming contingent remembers ever existed. When people look at my racks of PS1 games they are often astonished to discover that what they assumed was an obscure import was in fact a US release that simply came and went at retail with hardly any notice. Remember 'The Adventures of Lomax,' the Lemmings spin-off? Don't be surprised if you don't, I only have a copy because I was on the Psygnosis reveiwer list.[/quote]

There was not 'zero' advertising behind it; there were, in fact, full page magazine ads. It's not the marketing muscle of, say, having t-shirts, bandannas, and soundtracks. But for 1996, it was pretty fucking typical.

Gamerevolution mentions the lack of license: "On the other hand, this modified Japanese import (Toukon Retsuden) never had any licensing agreements with any of the popular pro wrestling federations of the U.S., like the WWF. All 12 of the burly brawlers in Power Move are imaginary characters, so fans won't be able to find any of their favorite fighters."

Gamespot's review mentions the 'generic' look of the guys as well: "Essentially, the final result is a fairly clean (ie, boring) wrestling game that features generic musclemen with names like El Tremblor, the Commandant, and Chaingang, who are all wrapped in a polygonal package similar to Sega's Virtua Fighter. " Now, if you recall (which I'm certain you do), the world had not yet seen the graphical behemoth know as Tomb Raider, so you can easily grasp our collective graphical standard at the time. The review clearly points out the lack of a license as a negative in that sentence; "generic" rarely, if ever, has a positive connotation to it.

I'm not disagreeing with you about the game's quality, though I enjoyed it. I'm merely pointing out that it's licensed competition outsold it, and it's licensed competition was a 2-D WWF game manufactured by Acclaim that was a distinct rip off of the Midway WWF title. In Your House was known for having tremendous frame rate problems, audio problems, and just being a rehash of Wrestlemania The Arcade Game.

The short version is this: Power Move was bad (in your opinion), but WWF: In Your House was worse. The latter made money hand over fist, while there's a reason we're still waiting on "Power Move 2."

Game Rankings: WWF: In Your House

myke.
 
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