So, I'm checking my emails today, and I get an email about being a Class Member in a lawsuit against EA Sports regarding their football games. The Website with information on this is: http://www.easportslitigation.com/ Anybody else get this email, and can anybody clarify what it all means? All I know is it has something to do with EA's exclusive licenses. Edit - From Game Informer: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/06/madden-class-action-lawsuit-goes-ahead.aspx Anything that has even the slightest possibility of ending EA's exclusive license, or causing them to have to lower the price is just fine with me.
The NFL should be the one being sued over this, not EA. Both 2k Games and EA were offered exclusivity. And there is plenty of football alternatives to NFL games, just not retail editions with the "new" players. Nothing prevents anyone from buying and/or playing an older game though if they don't like Madden. Also, EA isn't overcharging any more than most any other company out there that puts games out at the $60 retail price.
This will be thrown out in an instant. In fact it is ridiculous, but I am not surprised the law suite originated in CA. They successfully and legally negotiated an exclusive NFL license, there are other alternatives like Back Breaker, etc, so there goes the monopoly, so this class action has more holes than pasta strainer. Supply and demand dictate the price people are willing to pay, and the volumes they've sold allow them to charge $60 for a game. If people don't like it, it is a free market, they can chose not to buy it or buy another game.
I am on said email list. and Ill stay on incase some crazy **** happens and it works (it wont) but still!
The point of the lawsuit is nflpa, nfl team likenesses, stadiums, uniforms etc being exclusive to one company/game. Backbreaker is not an alternative.
Basically the lawsuit says: "EA owns nfl rights, so it can make an inferior game then it would if it had real competition, and we will buy it anyways, since its the only nfl game on the market" You mean to tell me we wouldnt see better games produced from EA if 2k was still pumping out nfl games? Hell yes you would!
That isn't the point. The point is EA didn't act illegally in attaining the exclusive license. Retaining the license is not illegal because it is not considered a monopoly because there is nothing stopping other developers from making a football game, granted, without NFL names, stadiums etc. The point of the law suite is that buyers are being charged too much, not that others can't use the NFL license which has no grounds anyway. There is nothing the law can do in this case. The NFL approved EA to be their exclusive. Too bad for 2K. Too bad for you. Too bad for me. But there is nothing illegal about it. Also the market dictates the price, or the most profitable price considering once again, supply and demand. If I were EA, I would counter sue everyone on the class action list, why not, they have a ton of money from re-using the same game engine for the last 8 years and charging $60 a year for a roster update. Ultimately, I agree with your take, and with the general public, but from a legal standpoint, this case has a snowball's chance in hell at actually being considered serious IMO.
Regarding your last paragraph, I'm not exactly sure why you are so certain we'd see better games from EA if EA had competition. One needs only to look at NBA Live to show that. I'm not saying we'd have the same Madden game we have today, but I wouldn't be so certain that it would be better than what we currently have.
hmmm I'm not too sure about that, wasn't microsoft threatened for trying to make pentium processors that only can run microsoft products? I can see the situations as somewhat comparable.
NBA 2K >>> NBA Live (at this point) NHL (EA) >> NHL 2k the Show > MLB 2k However, for me I never found NFL 2k to be better than Madden. It was different, and did some things better but I never felt the product overall was better.
