EA makes more friends. Sega Loses ESPN
Monday, January 17th, 2005 - 4:54pm
ESPN brand and programming to surface in EA sports titles on all platforms; deal is second blow to Sega Sports and Visual Concepts.
Electronic Arts broke the calm of a national holiday today by announcing a licensing deal of epic proportions. For the next fifteen years, EA will be the sole licensee of the ESPN brand in the area of sports games, which will include console, handheld, PC, and wireless games.
Games with leverage the ESPN brand will make their way to retail sometime during calendar year 2006, "upon the conclusion of ESPN's existing video game licensing commitments."
The news is the second blow to current license-holder Sega (and its Visual Concepts development studio). It recently lost the right to publish sports games using the NFL license when EA scooped that license up. Now, it loses the right to the ESPN brand as well.
In a statement released just minutes ago, the world's largest game publisher said, "The relationship will include established EA SPORTS franchises--which will be enhanced by ESPN telecast, print and online content--as well as new sports games to be published by EA based on ESPN media properties."
The agreement is for fifteen years "with an option to terminate after ten years under certain conditions," the statement said. The agreement gives the publisher "exclusive first rights" to all ESPN content for simulation sports games.
By Curt Feldman -- GameSpot
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Wow. Those guys are absolutely ruthless.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Holy Crap.
Xbox Live: Kooter06
Yeah, I was thinking about this earlier last week. Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, both on ESPN''s payroll are doing the play-by-play in NCAA 2005. ESPN even has a show called EA SPORTS NFL Matchup.
I always thought EA would end up with the ESPN license, although not neccessarily in this manner. So, to repeat the already stated, **** EA.
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XBL Tag: Prederick
Groovy, I think Sega should start to tap into lesser known sports such as curling.
XBL/PSN/STEAM/WAR/SPORE/RAPTR
Great Disney AND EA in bed together.. can anyone think of a more evil alliance??
Playing WoW as: Vilius (70 NE Druid)
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” John K Galbraith
Curling is that game that old people play on cruise ships?
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
No. Curling is a very cool game played on ice, with rules and action similar to Bocce. Bocce on ice - what''s not to like?
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
Jesus H. Tap-dancing Christ.
Only one company making sports games. Wow. It''s all about coporate money now.
Fans? What are fans? They don''t do anything but complain.
I ordered NFL2k5 from gamefly the other day for 12.99 or somesuch price. For 15 bucks after shipping and tax (I hate tax!) I suppose I have the only football game I''ll need for the next few years.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Now EA just needs to drop Tiburon and acquire Visual Concepts to develop Madden and the world will be right again.
Man, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over at the espnvideogames.com forum must be deafening.
(In case it''s not clear, I lament the pending death of the 2k* franchise.)
Edit: Well I went to check things out on the boards and someone suggested that VC/Sega could try to get the Fox Sports license. That may not be a bad idea....
Xfire|XBL
gr.umpic.us|grumpicus.com
Commissioner, GWJFFL|GWJFFL2
So let''s recap:
* $300 million for the NFL Rights
* $____ million for ESPN rights
equals= how much spent on game development?
They only thing they can do now is hire visual concepts and and this point, I would not be surprised.
They have a good sports development stuido. The Madden games pull in a ton of cash.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Some people like EA. I am aware of this. But if a company is going to spend this much money just for licensing -- then my question is how much are they going to put into developing the game?
EA is driven by public relations (which is really what drives successful companies). I don''t think (and this is my opnion) that they have any reason to make a ground-breaking game. They have their PR house all tidy now, people will just buy an EA game. Now I am not saying that Take Two actually cared about the gamer (which is what a lot of the people on the ESPN Boards like to say) Take Two wanted money, just like EA. They lowered their price to grabbed market share and then they, in all likelihood, would do what is about to come from EA: spend as little money as possible to make a game that as many people as possible will buy in order to make as much profit as possible. And that is business. But competition forces the companies to improve.
It is this fact that competition is no longer going to be driving development that is annoying. And this doesn''t apply to just games. We seem to be slowly working our one toward one corporation for America. There aren''t really more than five that really control it now:
Disney
Time Warner
Microsoft
NewsCorp
Wal-Mart
We keep this up and we will have one company controlling everything including media. Hell two of the ones I listed control most the media people get their news from now.
No competition is bad for consumers. In all aspects of life.
EDITS: Expect a ton of them cause I wrote too fast and didn''t bother to go back and re-read it.
You play any EA games lately? I''d say they don''t spend anything on development in the first place.
Blog: GameFinance
Twitter: justinmwhitaker
That was my point. I don''t think they are going to work too hard on next year''s version, especially with next gen consoles looming.
Says EA to Sega:
Graktar, Orc Hunter
Says EA to integrity and all gamers:
:hump: 
--edit--
So, let me get this straight... EA dumps Madden, rebrands the Madden engine-based game as ESPN football? So, all the people who picked up ESPN 2k5 for 20 bucks this year and liked it are going to be fooled into buying a completely different game. The Madden faithful will buy anything EA puts out, Madden or not. This is vile. Here''s even more hoping for SEGA NFL 2k6''s ''user-created'' rosters, players, and stadiums... if you get my drift. That, or I''ll be playing 2k5 for the next fifteen years. This is like some sort of gaming nightmare.
I generated a virtual world in the toilet bowl this morning.
-- Podunk on the PS3's mystical, magical abilities
Game
Set
Match.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
""''Tis not a game company. ''Tis a remorseless eating machine.""
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Guess I''m playing real football from here on out.
Y''all meet me in the backyard. Bring your pads.
"Time traveling terrorists are no laughing matter, Malor." - *Legion* quote #30201
XBox Live: Novopain
I doubt that will happen. The Madden brand is far too established. For many people it''s synonymous with videogame football. Even if EA''s game will be the only title available this year, I don''t think they''d take the risk and completely remove ""Madden"" from the title.
I''m sure EA and Disney (which owns both ABC - where Madden is on MNF - and ESPN) will figure out a way to make the two co-exist. Of course, that may soon reflect reality since it has been rumored that MNF (and possibly Madden) may end up on ESPN:
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gr.umpic.us|grumpicus.com
Commissioner, GWJFFL|GWJFFL2
This freaking sucks, I really can''t imagine how EA can say with a straight face how there will still be competition. This is just part of their plan to eliminate every other football game for the next 5 years. They got their ass handed to them by Sega for selling the game at $20 so this is how they get their revenge. Frackin evil scumf****.
Ten bucks says ESPN''s name will be all over this and Madden gets a smaller type?
Playing WoW as: Vilius (70 NE Druid)
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” John K Galbraith
It''s horrifying, but it could work. Just follow the trail. ESPN is part of Disney. Disney owns ABC. ABC puts on ""Monday Night Football"". Al Michaels and one John Earl Madden do the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively.
If EA gets ABC in on the deal, they could basically end up bringing you the Sunday Night Football game, and the Monday Night Game. And, knowing EA, they''ll be trying to get FOX or CBS to hop in too (back when Madden was on FOX, I have a distinct rememberance of one of the Madden games, can''t remember which year, using FOX''s NFL theme and so on) and do all that crap.
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XBL Tag: Prederick
There is an EA office in Montreal...
Can I get C4 off Ebay?
Xbox Live: MrGreen
PSN: MrGreenPSN
Wii: 4859 2... oh f*ck it.
So, EA Presents EA Sports''s ESPN''s John Madden''s Football 2k6?
Damn. Hey, remember when we all thought Sega was better off doing software only? Yeah, we were f*cking dumb.
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
Sega is too small to compete with EA head to head. I think the sales for ESPN 2k6 would have dropped like a rock now that the prices have gone up (before EA bought the name).
I''m mad at ESPN and the NFL for signing these deals. They should know that compeititon will get the best product for consumers. ESPN was builing a great name with the gaming community and now it is just another EA label.
For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. ~Ron Shelton, Bull Durham, 1988
Somewhat related topic, DFC Intelligence looking back at 2004 in their latest newsletter: