EA Obtains Exclusive NFL Licensing Rights 597
Grub writes "EA has signed a 5-year agreement with the NFL that gives them exclusive rights to use NFL players, teams, and stadiums in their products. CEO Larry Probst, 'The five-year agreement will usher NFL fans through the console technology transition with new ideas and innovative game play experiences.'
This is a crushing blow to competitors and an enormous victory for EA, who will undoubtably make sure everyone knows that only they have NFL players and teams come next year's football game advertising bonanza."
Damn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn (Score:2)
OK maybe not the farming sim game...
Re:Damn (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway this is more a videogame monopoly story than a strict sports story...
Re:Just when I thought EA couldn't get any more ev (Score:3, Informative)
Soon, they are opening a 'location' in China to outsour^H^H^H^H^H^H^H tap into that market as well. One thing I have noticed about them is that they have many layers of management, who really are business people and know nothing ab
Re:Just when I thought EA couldn't get any more ev (Score:3, Interesting)
The NFL Player's Association (the union) holds rights to the likenesses and personal information of the players. EA pays the NFLPA a sum of cash and they get to use the real players' names.
The NFL itself holds rights to the names and logos and information about the teams.
Various corporate sponsors own the rights to the names of the stadiums.
Some teams are whor^h^h^h^hselling their -names- to corporations, too. This year t
It's about time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's about time (Score:2, Funny)
Repeat matches (Score:4, Informative)
There are what, 8 teams? How long can a season take?
Why do you imply ruling out repeat matches in a season? There are thirty teams in the National Basketball Association, and a season takes over 80 games. There are thirty teams in Major League Baseball, and a season takes over 160 games. There are nine teams in the Canadian Football League [www.cfl.ca], and its regular season is 20 weeks long [www.cfl.ca].
Re:It's about time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's about time (Score:3, Funny)
-fren
Re:It's about time (Score:5, Interesting)
However, once EA finished dominating this sport, it branched out into others, gradually trying to recreate the success of the NHL games. As EA diverted its focus, this meant that the franchise began a gradual decline...alot of gimmicks were added in to justify new versions from year to year. PC Gamer discusses the decline of EA NHL in this month's issue.
I'd argue "Success" = "jumped the shark" for EA Sports games. There's no reason to believe that NFL Football under EA will not be the same. EA got the rights to the NFL based on the solid 2005 offering of Madden, and will probably futher improve the game for the first year or two in the deal. But I guarantee that the 2009/2010 Madden will be derivative garbage, EA maximising profits before the license comes due.
failed in Auto Racing, too. (Score:3, Interesting)
EA pulled off an exclusive licensing deal like this with Porsche. That's why you can't drive cars named "Porsche" in Gran Turismo. They have some imaginary model that matches them in specs, but they don't look much like a real 911.
The only video games with Porsches are the EA Need for Speed and Porsche Unleashed series. All of which suck ass compared to the Gran Turismo series. I'm sure the engineers at Porshe must be pretty disappointed that the marketing folks crippled them from playing Porsches in Gr
Can't Wait for EA NFL Porsche 2K6 (Score:3, Insightful)
In Project Gotham Racing you can race several Porsches (Porsche Boxster S, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Porsche 550 Spyder, Porsche 911 RS 2.7, Porsche Carrera Coupe, Porsche 911 Turbo, Porsche 911 GT3, Porsche 959, Porsche Carrera GT, Porsche 911 GT1). Did Bizarre Creations/MS pay money that Sony did not have?
The Grand Turismo series (at least in GT3) at least makes up for the no-Porsches rule by having Ruf [ruf-automobile.de] models (I believe the CTR2 [rim.or.jp] is the "ultimate" car you can get). It's not an "imaginary" model at a
Solid 2005 offering? No way. (Score:3, Insightful)
The truth is, at $20, ESPN was putting the hurt on EA. EA's entire business model depends on $50 a game. With the reviews given to ESPN, the average teenager with $20 in his pocket is going to buy ESPN and tell EA to go ____ themselves, especially when EA stays
Money makes the world go 'round! Money money money (Score:5, Funny)
You know, everytime I read about the hockey teams of Florida or California, I die a little inside.
Re:It's about time (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, you know Bob Young, one of the founders of Red Hat, is a CFL fan. He'd have to be, being the owner of the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. [ticats.ca] Perhaps we could contact him about seeing what he could do about getting a CFL game out there. :)
Re:It's about time (Score:2, Insightful)
not a bunch of maybes and never-will-be's
Yeah because people never go to see a minor league or highschool game right...
Oh yeah right your wrong.
Madden 64... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Madden 64... (Score:5, Interesting)
It wouldn't be the first time Midway pulled off a football game without an NFL license. Back in 1990 or thereabouts (I forget the exact year), they released an arcade game called High Impact Football which used nonexistent teams. Apparently it did well enough to rate a sequel called Super High Impact Football. (Now, if they'd just include either in Midway Arcade Treasures 3...)
Just my $.02...
Re:Madden 64... (Score:2)
Re:Madden 64... (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently it did well enough to rate a sequel called Super High Impact Football.
I'm waiting for Super High Impact Tennis. A game like that would be the shit.
Re:Madden 64... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, even EA used to use fake names. NHL92 was an awesome game, but didn't use real teams nor real player names.. that came in NHL93 and was a huge deal at the time.
But I'm rather suprised no one has yet mentioned the definitive pre-license football game. Tecmo Bowl. Damn th
Re:Madden 64... (Score:3, Insightful)
I honestly don't understand all the branding crap, even in sports sims. All I care about is if the game is worth a crap.
Make the damned thing "skinable" and the community will make the silly graphics and such in short order, if it's worth playing in the first place.
KFG
Re:Madden 64... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yay! Drugs! (Score:3, Informative)
Lovely. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, football fans, I hope you liked Madden 2005, because you're going to get that same game shoved down your throats with updated rosters for the next five years.
EA needs to die.
Re:Lovely. (Score:2, Insightful)
Unfortunately, people will still buy them. Too bad more people don't realize that it's the same game!
Re:Lovely. (Score:5, Interesting)
Can we save some time and just repost all of the "M$ is Evil" posts from the last 5 years and just replace Microsoft with EA in each? It really doesn't take much to bring out the knee-jerk reactions here on
Re:Lovely. (Score:3, Interesting)
I really like some of the games that EA produces. I'm not too into their sports division, never have been, but they have a track record of making some badass software. As for the hours, that's the games industry; love it or get out.
And you know, regarding EA Wife, I've never known a worker who got taken advantage of who didn't consent to it, either by their silence or their signiture. The manager who won't let you take a few days off because you're suffering from a nervous breakdown or your marriage is fa
Re:Lovely. (Score:3, Insightful)
An alegory of rape (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, she was asking for it!
As for the hours, that's the games industry; love it or get out.
Neat, so they only are taken advantage of because they agreed to, and if they don't: get out.
Super, just... super.
€A is evil (Score:2, Funny)
Actually, M$ should be replaced by €A.
Penny Arcade fans please read this (Score:4, Funny)
The $ in M$ doesn't just signify childish accusations of greed. Microsoft started out as a developer of BASIC interpreters for home computers. Notably, Microsoft developed the "Applesoft" BASIC interpreter in the Apple II Plus through IIGS computers. In that early line-numbered era of BASIC, the name of every string variable ended in a dollar sign. Thus, M$ was a valid name for a string variable, and 10 LET M$ = "Microsoft" was perfectly valid BASIC code. Sometimes people have to make such abbreviations to fit things into Slashdot's short comment subject lines.
Re:Lovely. (Score:2, Interesting)
I get what your saying, groupthink is annoying.
But this case is a little different. Actually a whole lot different. Now there is no competition. Competition, if you remember (or are you just trolling?) is what gave us freakin 20 DOLLAR VIDEO GAMES [slashdot.org] in the first place, for God's sake. That's a real, tangible difference in the weight of my wallet.
Now that's gone. So, yeah, I think the gamers who hang here have every r
Re:Lovely. (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite, how is selling a video game shoving it down people's throats? You do realise you don't HAVE to buy it right?
Anyways, the same type of people who buy this re-hashed crap are the same type of people I don't care much for when they are ripped off.
Re:Lovely. (Score:3, Insightful)
CBS and Fox each have exclusive contracts to a different conference, ESPN/ABC have exclusive rights to Sunday night and Monday night respectively.
I don't think you're quite getting it.
Nobody but EA can produce an NFL game for the next five years. You're saying "it's the same in TV! It doesn't matter that Fox, ABC, CBS, and ESPN can all broadcast games, because they each have their own part of the league!" This may be true, but how does it compare to EA's total monopoly
Re:Lovely. (Score:2, Interesting)
So basically, what's EA's response to a better product being produced for less money? Force their competition out by bu
They Might Not Let this one Stagnate... (Score:3, Insightful)
EA used to be like this with the FIFA Football (soccer to you Americans) licence - I'm pretty sure every FIFA game from 1996 to 2001 was the same damn game with just the rosters updated - they've got better since, though, and have been genuinely adding new features to every release since 2002 (mostly because a large section of the market began
Ahhh. . . innovation (Score:5, Insightful)
Because monopolies (this is a monopoly of sorts) always lead to innovation.
Re:Ahhh. . . innovation (Score:3, Insightful)
Arcade style sport sims (Score:2, Informative)
By [sport simulations'] very nature they can't go beyond the rules of the game they're based on.
That sentence makes me believe that you never played NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, or any EA Sports BIG title.
Re:Ahhh. . . innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, but if you know anything about football you would know it is a very deep and complex game. Football reminds me of a chess game with real people where each side can choose their opening positions every play. It really is a facinating mixture of head knowledge and physical ability and requires years to fully appreciate.
And football games are getting more and more realistic every year. And not just in graphics. There is every bit or more strategy in a game like Madden 2005 as any Real Time Strategy game---with surprising less "twitching". Don't let the fact that it is a "sports game" fool you into thinking its a dumb mindless fast-twich fest. There is alot more to the game than picking a 4-3 in running situations and a Dime in passing ones.
You can't win without using your brain.
Brian Ellenberger
Re:Ahhh. . . innovation (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know when exactly anymore, but the game was Caveman Uglympics!
Re:Ahhh. . . innovation (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah you can. Morpheus says so.
The game will never be as smart or as fast as you.
NFL, Players Inc, CFL, and MLS (Score:2)
The point of copyright is that monopoly in expression creates diversity in expression.
NFL doesn't have a monopoly on football, just on its team nicknames and logos. Imagine the possibilities if NFL licenses exclusively to one developer and NFL Players Inc [nflplayers.com] licenses exclusively to another: you'd get situations like the early 1990s where one company's game would have real players and fake team logos, while the other had fake players and real team logos. So we have one NFL game, one NFL Players Inc game, on
College? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:College? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you kidding? College is even worse. We at least can display the NFL logo on our *news* site. Not so with college.
The worst offender is college basketball. They've trademarked "Sweet 16" and "Final Four", and you aren't allowed to use those terms as section headings without paying licensing fees. Same goes for team logos.
Great, now NFL games will run 16 quarters (Score:2, Funny)
Whatever (Score:4, Funny)
Competition goes bye bye (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Competition goes bye bye (Score:2)
E$PN and 95-year copyrights (Score:2)
ESPN football is superior in just about every way.
The "S" in ESPN [losingnemo.com] football stands for Sonny Bono [losingnemo.com].
Re:Competition goes bye bye (Score:3, Funny)
Yeh, seriously. They should have just stopped at Madden 94 [consoleclassix.com], when football on a console was perfected. That is the only football game I ever play, and you know what? It looks amazing projected onto a 100" screen, you wouldn't believe the graphics they had back in 1994. I don't even know why anyone else tries, they should just bow down to Madden 94 and give up.
Don't blame EA. (Score:3, Informative)
As many concerns I have with EA, you can't blame them for buying something someone was willing to sell.
They didn't force the NFL into this agreement. The NFL sold it to them. If you're going to rant about anyone, rant about the NFL, because if the NFL was thinking long-term, they wouldn't issue long term exclusives to game companies.
Without seeing the contract, there's no way to judge, but if it had been m
Perfect (Score:5, Funny)
XFL? (Score:2)
Sweet.
Re:Perfect (Score:3, Insightful)
rugby, australian rules football, and arena football come immediately to mind.
Perhaps even made up sports. Calvinball anyone?
Best sports game ever... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you can't beat them... (Score:2)
ea has always been a dirty player with sega (Score:3, Interesting)
i guess i won't be buying any more ea games until the day i die, same with microsoft products.
bastards.
That's great... (Score:2)
I need my new football game to replace last years', i hate the cover on that one.
monoply status of the MFL (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:monoply status of the MFL (Score:5, Informative)
Q: Why don't other sports have the antitrust exemption?
A: For 18 years after Toolson, in case after case, judges admitted that the baseball exemption was flawed, but it was never overruled. Exemptions for boxing, football and basketball were denied in the higher courts, while hockey and golf antitrust exemptions were also denied in the lower courts
In fact baseball's anti trust exemption keeps being dwindled away by congress
In 1972, Curt Flood's case -- which also challenged baseball's reserve system -- reached the Supreme Court and although it was again acknowledged that baseball's antitrust exemption was "an anomaly," the Court ruled that it is up to Congress to change baseball's antitrust exemption.
Further reduction of the anti-trust exemption could be coming up soon with the issue of steroids becoming an item on political agendas. Congress will look to pass regulations and possibly remove the exemption if baseball does not police itself steroid use.
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:3, Informative)
Recollections of my past (Score:5, Interesting)
I had no intention of sharing it beyond that, but something about using actual NFL teams made me wonder about licensing rights. So I wrote to the NFL and asked them if I wanted to create a private, not-for-profit, not to be spread around game, could I use actual NFL team names? I figured it was a silly question, for why would they object. Probably you are thinking I was an idiot for writing under the universal principle of it's better to be ask forgiveness than to ask permission. Well, I was, but there you are. Anyway, I got a nice letter from NFL headquarters saying, "Thank you for asking, but no, you may not use actual NFL team names since we have entered into exclusive licensing arrangements with game companies." I have no idea which game company (probably early Atari stuff or some nonsense), but the idea of exclusive licensing of NFL names is hardly new. They've been raking in free money on that concept for at least twenty years now.
And no, I didn't change my program. Oh, I tried to make up names like the Comets and the Tigers, but it sounded too hokey, so I left in the real names anyway. NFL lawyers, you may arrest me now.
how about Microsoft do a Halo Football game? (Score:2)
I'd like to see football with fireballs and sleeping spells or baseball with alternative physics at play... why limit sports games to what you can see on TV?
Re:how about Microsoft do a Halo Football game? (Score:2)
This is not exactly untrodden ground. I seem to recall a Sega Genesis game that covered this kind of territory, and there was the Games Workshops Blood Bowl [specialist-games.com] tabletop game, now semi-retired. Someone should pick that license up and run with it.
Have they told the NFL players... (Score:2)
This is just an opportunity (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a large playerbase that is actively followed. Gamers will still go where the best game implementation is.
Can you imagine how rich the online play would be with leagues composed of every college team would be? It would be fantastic!
Even if they don't go with colleges they could setup entire virtual leagues. Track stats of a 'fake' league online have a team for every state so that you can have large online leagues. Have web based fantasy games setup for when your at work. It could work and be compelling.
They could even stream nightly gaming updates to your xbox (ala machinma) using the ingame engine.
Maybe people will continue to buy EA's games but if Sega does it right, most football gamers will end up buying both, and perhaps spend more time theirs.
Re:This is just an opportunity (Score:3, Informative)
...There is a large playerbase that is actively followed.
Umm... I don't really follow US college sports, but can they actually use the names of college athletes? I thought that that wasn't allowed (although I could be thinking of college basketball or something).
Re:This is just an opportunity (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This is just an opportunity (Score:3, Informative)
Okay troll, I'll bite.
Sega voluntarily decided not to continue their college football games for the 2003-4 and 2004-5 seasons after sales for the 2002-3 season (Sega NCAA Football 2K3). Sega has made excellent NCAA football games in the past (though not as good as EA's NCAA Football line in my opinion) but their NFL line has excellent play
How much did it cost? (Score:2)
EA keeps Madden prices high (Score:2)
Guess EA would rather spend the extra cash in getting an exclusive license (which I'm sure they paid an arm and a leg for) rather than spending all that money improving Madden in a competive market, or reducing the price of the Madden series to fend off well-made-$20 football games.
When you buy ESPN NFL you support Sonny Bono (Score:5, Informative)
Of every dollar that goes to a movie-license game or another game licensed by a major movie studio, some cents go to lobbying for anti-consumer copyright legislation. For instance, the $20 MSRP of ESPN NFL 2Kx includes a royalty paid to ESPN and thus to its majority owner, The Walt Disney Company. Disney was behind the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [losingnemo.com].
Re:EA keeps Madden prices high (Score:2)
Solution for competitors (Score:5, Interesting)
This would allow you to enter in your child's own Pop Warner teams to play against each other.
Of course, there's always a chance that some naughty person might start spreading around a database listing all the real NFL players.
That would certainly be tragic. But it's a risk we might have to take.
It's like Microsoft Office (Score:2)
Competitors should design their products to accept any properly formatted database file of players and stats.
Microsoft Word 97 can accept any propeRTFly formatted word processing DOCument. Because Word 97 and later will read .doc and .rtf files saved by newer versions, just skipping over new features that it doesn't recognize, the existing Office 97 and 2000 install base competes with Microsoft's effort to sell copies of Office 2003. Likewise, supporting XML databases of players in one year's tackle foo
Re:Solution for competitors (Score:3, Interesting)
They sure got a lotta money... (Score:2)
why blast EA?... go after then NFL.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:why blast EA?... go after then NFL.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Who gives a shit if they gave exclusive rights to the inferior product? The NFL made out like a bandit on the deal. NFL 7, gamers 0.
Re:why blast EA?... go after then NFL.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Minor nit (Score:5, Funny)
Should read: "Michael Vick"
Stupid me! (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I've just been answered...
Now we have only once game with the offical licence - which will probably retain the same selling price to make up for the licensing fees.
Wall Street (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wall Street (Score:3, Interesting)
This is great news! (Score:3, Funny)
Cyberball 2072 was the only football-type game I ever found to be fun.
C'mon! Giant robots? Playing football? My pals and I spent many a quarter on that, beating each other senseless.
Screw EA and the NFL. No giant robots, no care.
Re:This is great news! (Score:2)
Tecmo! (Score:2, Insightful)
Speaking of Idiotic Exclusive Sports Deals (Score:2)
source [sportsfanmagazine.com]
Nice power play by EA, but there are options (Score:5, Informative)
Does it mean any other football game is dead? No, you could see a small studio come out with a football game that makes use of connected technology to let people create and download their own rosters.
Many independent baseball sims release their game without a licensed roster, but allow people to download 3rd party rosters where people add actual player/team names and stats.
There's always the possibility that it leads to the first baby steps of console game modding. Where there are roadblocks and money to made there is also innovation.
Double-take (Score:4, Insightful)
This is bad. So very bad. If this is true (see above), this will essentially kill the football franchises of Sony/989 Studios [989sports.com], Sega [espnvideogames.com], and Midway [midway.com]. It doesn't matter how good a game is -- without the license to use the official teams and players, you are toast.
The immediate effect of this will be price. When Sega slashed it's sports line to $20, EA followed suit by dropping it's sports titles to $30. Think that will happen when EA has no competition? Quality will be the next to go -- what will be EA's motivation to innovate? When SCEA first released NFL Gameday for the Playstation, EA cancelled it's Madden because of its inferrior quality. They came back the next year with a much-improved offering. Without compeition, what will stop EA from shoveling out complete garbage? There wasn't a lot of year-on-year innovation in the first place, but now I'll be surprised if they do little more update the team rosters.
Oh, and doesn't easpouse's [livejournal.com] husband work for EA Tiburon [tiburon.com]? I guess that situation isn't going to improve. "Where else are you going to work? Sega? Bwah hah hah hah!". Guess I better figure out how the BCS works... damn you EA!!!
This could be good news for hockey! (Score:2)
Translation Follows (Score:5, Funny)
"Hi. Sega? Remember that $19.99 price undercut? Yeah. F*** you."
Re:Translation Follows (Score:4, Funny)
licensing culture and community (Score:3, Funny)
I mean, what's left to commercialize after this? Is the next frontier to commercialize transactions within families? Honey, a roll in the hay will be $500, and do take note of the Coca Cola logo (a licensing exclusive) on the bra before your remove it. If you want a hug from your kids, that will be $5 a hug. (Well, sadly, we may be pretty far along down that road already.)
XFL Extreme Football! (Score:3, Funny)
They did this with NASCAR as well, in a way. (Score:3, Informative)
Despite EA's inability to put out a quality NASCAR sim title on PC since their first effort in 1998, there still is hope for a quality Papyrus styled racing sim platform to build NASCAR mods on. The main co-founder of Papyrus, Dave Kaemmer, has teamed up with Boston Red Sox owner John Henry (a rabid NASCAR Racing player) and created FIRST-Racing.net [first-racing.net]. This company will put out a game using the source code base from NASCAR Racing 2003, which they bought from Sierra. Hopefully this new game will provide fans of the renown NASCAR Racing series a base to continue racing NASCAR with a platform they have grown accustomed to.
before you blame EA (Score:5, Insightful)