EA Sports scores big...

"Duttybrew" wrote:

I know that you are joking Druid, but I would actually like it if they included a CFL rules mode into one of these games. I think it might be fun play a more wide open style of football.

I agree.

Well, I''m thinking we should get ready to hear the following:
Madden NFL 2006 $59.99: The only way to play the NFL on-line (for the low, low price of $9.95/month)

"WineGlass" wrote:

Well, I''m thinking we should get ready to hear the following:
Madden NFL 2006 $59.99: The only way to play the NFL on-line (for the low, low price of $9.95/month)

Don''t forget the $14.99 roster updates so your favorite team can be even sh*ttier than it was.

While this is a totally evil practice and EA should rot in hell it doesn''t bother me THAT much. I used to play NFL games on Genesis where it was just the players names and no teams so it doesnt really matter to me. There will be a roster for ESPN''s game within a week so I will just download that. I can live without seeing a team''s logo on the field.

Noam Chomsky would have a field day with this EA story.

I''m reading some stuff elsewhere that indicates that this was the NFL''s decision to make the license an exclusive, and opened the bidding up to as many as 6 different companies.

I''m also reading that the league was less than happy with the affect that the price ""war"" between Sega''s title and EA''s title had on their cut of the royalties.

It bothers me to the point of lack of competition. I don''t think anyone but Xbox fan boys (or PS2 fan boys) would think it would be a good thing for there to be just one console. I have both Madden and ESPN and I like ESPN. It''s like when you start buying a product at the store and you really like it, then all of a sudden they stop making it. It just sucks. And it sucks because you have no choice in the matter. You get lured in by marketing to try a product, you like said product, then they take it away.

Damn, we are just a bunch of mice in a maze aren''t we. Controlled by the great Coproate overlords to buy what they want us to buy.

Did that sound as paranoid as I think it did?

"WineGlass" wrote:

I''m also reading that the league was less than happy with the affect that the price ""war"" between Sega''s title and EA''s title had on their cut of the royalties.

And there is the answer as to why this deal has happened.

"Sanjuro" wrote:
"SwampYankee" wrote:

Not for my f*cking money, it''s not. I''ll play ESPN with fake players and teams, or nothing at all. I won''t have my arm twisted into buying EA''s increasingly sh*tty offerings, which will no doubt get even worse due to the lack of competition.

I''m about as mad as a person can get regarding a game related issue!

Amen brother Swamp. f*ck EA. I''ll buy ESPN next year at a $50 price point and gladly play with fictional teams. EA can bite me.

In retrospect, I actually feel bad about buying FIFA this year (again). Another $50 on a mediocre soccer experience. I must learn patience...

I hope ESPN (or SEGA, really) understands that a lot of people preferred their game and that their Franchise mode just needs a few tweaks for it to be great (okay, a lot of tweaks). I do hope they bring a new title next year, be it CFL or imaginary players, I don''t care.

EDIT: In thinking about it, this could be small boon to ESPN. Sure, there are the people who want up-to-the-second ratings and rosters, I admit i''m one of them sometimes. But if they crank up the customization for next year''s game, and I mean make it like a Sports version of CoH''s character creation mode, they could have something great on their hands.

Oh holy hell.

So, we''ll be able to beat up homosexuals, snort coke and be domestic abusers now? That''s what I remember from playmakers.

I assume MLB Slugfest will have a ""Cream"" and ""Clear"" option next year, and NBA Jam will come with a brand new ""Larry Johnson"" mode where, through a humorous, Leisure Suit Larry-esque minigame you attempt to father as many children as possible from as many groupies as possible. And the obvious Ron Artest mode.

Oh well, no matter where you''re looking at it from, it''s hard to put a positive spin to it. Competition is what keeps the companies up on their toes. Sure, some here won''t mind playing a football game without official license (but editor inclusive). But let''s not kid ourselves, on the market it makes a huge difference for Jimmy-Bob if he can buy with the official rosters and teams or if there''s a game that will let him do that on his own. However, as le Tanker stated, the NFL''s as much to be blamed as EA. And it totally makes sense if you think about it. They get a huge bunch of cash, but will have about the same market presence as before. Most ESPN customers simply will go for Madden, even a huge chunk of the ''EA hatahs''. (The same way many ""George Lucas is not going to get another dollar from me""-people were the first in line to pick up the DVD trilogy and also will watch Episode III.)

Does EA have some kind of exclusive rights to NCAA football, too? If not, then ESPN should either A. go for it, or B. apply their experience toward making the best damn NCAA football game ever. I''d go for that over if given the option between EA''s exclusive NFL and ESPN''s NCAA football game.

"Rat Boy" wrote:

Hey, if we''re lucky, maybe ESPN will adapt their next football game to take place in the fictional league from Playmakers. Cheerleader screwing QBs...awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

No kidding. That was one of the few shows I watched regularly. Then ESPN cancelled it because the NFL asked them to. Nice to see their ass kissing was rewarded and SEGA got hurt to.

All of the homages to free market capitalism aside, this bites balls for the consumer, no question.

OK, I''m going to pick my team for next season a bit early. I will play the Hartford Jihad. Woe be to the infidels that transgress the sacred turf of Hartford Munisciple Stadium!!!!

So lets agree here and now to name the NFL as the devil incarnate with EA (for this and more). No one should have so much power as they do.

More happy thoughts. Now, imagine that EA goes platform exclusive in the next generation of consoles... Hooray NFL!

Not to belittle the problem, because it indeed truly sucks hard donkey nuts, but I find this thread humorous simply because if it had been given to Take-Two/SEGA instead of EA there''d be cheering in the streets at the death of Madden.

I don''t mean you guys either, I''m just saying people in general would consider it a good thing simply because it''d be one of the good guys. Ya know, SEGA isn''t the largest publisher in the world, they''re just the second largest, so they''re the underdog.

Cats and dogs, LIVING TOGETHER!

I don''t thik any of the sports leagues should grant exclusive rights to any one publisher.

OK Maybe the PBA could and no one would care, but that''s where I draw the line.

I don''t like the idea of EA trying to get exlusives with ALL the sports leagues either. They now have NASCAR, PGA, NFL and FIFA. What will the sports gaming world be like once they have MLB, NBA and NHL?

Edit: I HATE typos

Some analysis from CNN/Money:
Linky

Not being as up on sports games as most of you are, can anyone explain to me how Visual Concepts and Sega could actually make a football game next year? Everyone keeps talking about no-player-names and no-real-teams, but how does that actually work? Would VC actually MAKE UP teams and stadiums? And has this happened before?

You''re right, Pryo. If EA had lost the bidding, there''d be cheering in the GWJ Streets (da GWJ hood, if you will). But that''s because the vocal majority here like Sega''s game better. I don''t feel bad about that, even though I know it''s hypocritical. I''ve never really liked Madden, and now feel like I have no choice.

So I guess next year the Hockey league will be MUCH bigger than the Football league around here? Canadians rejoice.

NFL -- are they for hockey or football? Aw, I don''t give a damn about either.

All Sega has to do is make their game editable and allow ''custom leagues'' to be created and shared over Live - after all, the game publisher has no responsiblity for how players use their game. Sure, it will take a bit longer, but you know there are people out there who would enter every player''s name and statistics into a custom database and distribute it. This could actually be a good thing considering that it could be updated on the fly and if you disagreed with the way the designers balanced the teams, you could change it yourself.

The only potential downfall of that setup, Minase, is that Xbox Live is a closed network and it''s possible that they could shut out such behavior. Then again, MS has no specific allegiance to EA (perhaps even a bit o'' venom towards them) so maybe it could happen. If so that would be great. To make the game fully skin-able, and let fans create the teams/uniforms/players. I think that would actually catch on very well. And hey, since they don''t have to fork out for expensive licensing, maybe they could keep the price down? Cheap + customizable (where users could create their own NFL-based rosters) could equal a significant success. Aww hell, I''m just wishing here.

"Demiurge" wrote:

Not being as up on sports games as most of you are, can anyone explain to me how Visual Concepts and Sega could actually make a football game next year? Everyone keeps talking about no-player-names and no-real-teams, but how does that actually work? Would VC actually MAKE UP teams and stadiums? And has this happened before?

To an extent yes.

Michael Jordan and other higher profile players always got their likeness rights sold seperately than just getting the ''players associations'' rights secured. So for years there was a player on NBA games chicago team that was Jordan in every way but number and name.

Older games (prior to the games becoming big successes) didn''t have these rights. 4th and Inches on the C=64 comes to mind (mid 80s) as does the first few iterations of what was Front Page Sports football (early 90''s) on the PC.

There is room for these types of games because if the gameplay is there (managing or arcade) the game will draw people to it. But it is a niche thing because 90% of the people want a National Game-Name-Here Leage/Association game.

What made the Front Page Sports line such a great game in my opinion was the option to add players to the game, so even if they didn''t include the players from the NFL/MLB you could do the data entry and do it yourself. My brother and I did this for our baseball leagues and had an uber league with the all of the allstars of baseball over the history of the game and best of the negro and nippon leagues in a 32 team league. It was challenging to say the least.

What made the Front Page Sports line such a great game in my opinion was the option to add players to the game, so even if they didn''t include the players from the NFL/MLB you could do the data entry and do it yourself. My brother and I did this for our baseball leagues and had an uber league with the all of the allstars of baseball over the history of the game and best of the negro and nippon leagues in a 32 team league. It was challenging to say the least.

The Front Page Sports football series was what I think Sega should try and replicate with their next product. I still have fond memories of starting up a new week in the game and going outside and playing pickup touch football games in the park while waiting for the 486 to crank through simulating the games. I loved that series.

"Minase" wrote:

The Front Page Sports football series was what I think Sega should try and replicate with their next product. I still have fond memories of starting up a new week in the game and going outside and playing pickup touch football games in the park while waiting for the 486 to crank through simulating the games. I loved that series.

Yeah it was truly ahead of its time in terms of the things it allowed you to do and that many games still don''t allow you to do. Too bad Sierra mismanaged the hell out of it.

"baggachipz" wrote:

The only potential downfall of that setup, Minase, is that Xbox Live is a closed network and it''s possible that they could shut out such behavior. Then again, MS has no specific allegiance to EA (perhaps even a bit o'' venom towards them) so maybe it could happen. If so that would be great. To make the game fully skin-able, and let fans create the teams/uniforms/players. I think that would actually catch on very well. And hey, since they don''t have to fork out for expensive licensing, maybe they could keep the price down? Cheap + customizable (where users could create their own NFL-based rosters) could equal a significant success. Aww hell, I''m just wishing here.

The lawyers will kill that in the crib. Great idea, though.

"Eezy_Bordone" wrote:
"Minase" wrote:

The Front Page Sports football series was what I think Sega should try and replicate with their next product. I still have fond memories of starting up a new week in the game and going outside and playing pickup touch football games in the park while waiting for the 486 to crank through simulating the games. I loved that series.

Yeah it was truly ahead of its time in terms of the things it allowed you to do and that many games still don''t allow you to do. Too bad Sierra mismanaged the hell out of it.

I have very fond memories of this title. You are right, it was WAY ahead of it''s time.

People distribute the rosters for the NCAA games via LIVE and the USB memory sticks on PS2. Even though they are not suppose to.

Any thoughts or ideas how this deal will affect the various fantasy footbal league management software packages?

"Demi" wrote:

You''re right, Pryo. If EA had lost the bidding, there''d be cheering in the GWJ Streets (da GWJ hood, if you will). But that''s because the vocal majority here like Sega''s game better. I don''t feel bad about that, even though I know it''s hypocritical. I''ve never really liked Madden, and now feel like I have no choice.

While I do like this year''s ESPN game better, I am more concerned about the lack of competition in a section of the market that I adore. It''s not like ""Oh noes! teh EA has beaten my SEGA!!"". It''s more like football games will be sh*ttier in years to come because the NFL decided to sell exclusive rights. That is what most of us are upset about.

I am mad at EA because they probably offered a ton of money to the NFL way back when we first heard about this. Then, to pretend to be fair, the NFL opened up bidding to everyone, knowing all along that no other company could match EA''s muscle. It is just a sad time for football gamers. Especially with the new consoles right around the corner