The sports licensing is totally freaking out of control!!!!!

[Anthony1]

Man, this is a bitch.


I'm talking about a real, deal, bitch.


First, you have the best football game developer, Visual Concepts, no longer allowed to make NFL games because of E.A's exclusivity.


And then you have the best baseball game developer no longer allowed to make MLB games because of Take Two's exclusivity.


This is just a F ing trajedy if you ask me.


ESPN NFL 2K5 was the best football game, made by Visual Concepts, and they can no longer make games with use of the NFL or it's players.

Are you F ing kidding me?

We have to deal with Tiburon being the only developer allowed to use the NFL and players names, etc.? I'm sorry, but the last good football game Tiburon made was Madden 97 on the PS1. And even that game wasn't that damn good. Madden lovers can kiss my ass, because your game, while being the most popular economically speaking, was just that much inferior to VC's efforts.

And now we have to be stuck with your ass developing our football games for the next God knows how many years?

Man, just kill me now.

Tiburon better come correct. They better just throw away their current cartoon engine and do something remotely realistic. Man, I can't believe this ish.

But then, to add insult to injury, you have Take Two buying up the MLB license.

EA Sports had the best game of baseball in recent memory with MVP Baseball. That XBOX game is freaking incredible. Absolutely drop dead gorgeous in 720p and Dolby Digital 5.1. It was a freaking religous experience.

Now we have to deal with Visual Concepts making our baseball games. What fucking irony is that?

The best football game developer is going to be making our baseball games and the best baseball game developer is going to be making our football games?

Are you kidding me?


What's next?

[Rogmeister]

Assuming MVP Baseball 2005 is as good as 2004 (hopefully even a bit better), I have no qualms about making that my last baseball games for a few years. I can play it to 2007 and beyond. Who says we have to get a new sports edition every year? I'm not a big video game football fan but I imight want to get next year's just for Steelers QB Ben Rothliesberger...though I suppose if ESPN NFL 2K5 has a create-a-player mode (I haven't really played it much yet), I could create my own Ben Roethleisberger...let's break the trend of buying a football and/or baseball game every year!

Of course, this is all moot if Take2 comes out with the best baseball game ever a year from now...

[tholly]

eh.....hopefully they both flop and then there will be less sports games to buy as fillers for collections and less sports games to clutter the shelves at stores .... (can you tell i dont like sports games?)

[Half Japanese]

What was wrong with the other threads where this news was originally posted and discussed? I know it lacked "freaking" in the title, but it was essentially the same thing...

[vincewy]

eh.....hopefully they both flop and then there will be less sports games to buy as fillers for collections and less sports games to clutter the shelves at stores .... (can you tell i dont like sports games?)

QUOTE OF THE YEAR, :D

I was thinking, thank god EA didn't make games for Dreamcast, else I'll have so much more crap to fill my collection, actually I would not complete my DC collection if EA supported the system.

I actually don't mind arcade style, non-licsensed sports games, some are actually pretty sought after now, like Beach Spiker for GameCube, very similar to Neo-Geo games, simply plug and play, who has the time to play games for the whole season, this may be a lesson for sports leagues for their short sightedness, I really hope they all flop, costing NFL and MLB even more money in the long run.

[EnemyZero]

im pretty annoyed too, what i dont understand is EA gets a monopoly on the nfl liscense and thats OK but its illegal to have a monopoly to everyone else....why is EA special? maybe they have some government connections, i hope a friggan tornado rips apart there HQ and destroys everything at night when everyone is sleeping...FLAME ON!

[Griking]

Its not illegal to have a monopoly. Its illegal to use a monopoly in one market to create a monopoly in another market.

[FantasiaWHT]

Here's a question, dunno if anybody brought it up or not...

would it be possible for the "ousted" developers to make some sort of expansion pack for their older games with roster updates?

Another question would be would it be against the exclusivity contract for the other developers to reprint an older game?

[Kilik Kurosawa]

at least EA won't be making money on NHL 2006

[Captain Wrong]

What was wrong with the other threads where this news was originally posted and discussed? I know it lacked "freaking" in the title, but it was essentially the same thing...

LOL

Apparently bashing EA is the new bashing Sony. Whatever.

[Garry Silljo]

Who needs the licence anyway? Best Baseball game ever, .... say it with me poeple, BASEBALL STARS! All the teams were fake, but who cares because it was a great game. Football can do it too if it tries. Heres to hoping this works in the best interest of the gamers.

[hezeuschrist]

im pretty annoyed too, what i dont understand is EA gets a monopoly on the nfl liscense and thats OK but its illegal to have a monopoly to everyone else....why is EA special? maybe they have some government connections, i hope a friggan tornado rips apart there HQ and destroys everything at night when everyone is sleeping...FLAME ON!

People really need to stop using that word, because most have no idea what it means. EA has no monopoly of any sorts, they have an exclusive license deal. Visual Concepts is in no way forced to stop making football games by this deal, they simply can't use the NFL license. Now, if EA somehow bought the rights to "football" then it would be more arguable, but again it wouldn't stop VC from making other sports titles.

What EA did sucks, but it's well within the bounds of the law.

[Hep038]

I think in every EA thread on these boards it has been explained that this is not a monopoly. I think examples have been given, definitions from dictionaries and at one time I think I saw a diagram was made using bottle tops and sticks. But it is to no use, it seems if you have played the game monopoly you are some expert on economics and the law. The only reason I read these threads is because I like to see Captain Wrong "pie face" somebody on there ignorant post. It is sad when I long for the "Hardcore gamer vs. Casual Gamer" threads.
;)

[GobopopRevisited]

We have to deal with Tiburon being the only developer allowed to use the NFL and players names, etc.?

Though I highly doubt this will happen, EA could give the EA Sports football to someone else... *Again I highly doubt it would happen*

But Now we can all enjoy the possible NFL Sims, Need for Speed NFL, NFL 007, Battlefield NFL, and The True Story of the greatest Hero of our Time: Bobby McBobberson, the All-Star NFL Quarterback who fought in World War II... Medal of Honor: Japs in the Endzone.

[esquire]

I think in every EA thread on these boards it has been explained that this is not a monopoly. I think examples have been given, definitions from dictionaries and at one time I think I saw a diagram was made using bottle tops and sticks. But it is to no use, it seems if you have played the game monopoly you are some expert on economics and the law. The only reason I read these threads is because I like to see Captain Wrong "pie face" somebody on there ignorant post. It is sad when I long for the "Hardcore gamer vs. Casual Gamer" threads.
;)

I've watched people play Monopoly, does that make me an expert on law and economics? LOL

I saw your post and just had to laugh. It reminded me of that old SNL Commercial for Green & Fazio starring Phil Hartman.

"Woman: I'd love to sue somebody, but don't I need a reason?"

"Barry Green: Myth #8: In order to be successful, a lawsuit must have merit. False."

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92cgreen1.phtml

[chrisbid]

what people fail to see is that the NFL 2K series was Sega's best seller. The loss of revenue could be a fatal blow to sega.

[Half Japanese]

No wonder it's their best seller. Maybe it'll be a wakeup call to their other divisions to stop putting out dust-collecting shelf-sitters like Amazing Island and (I know I'll catch hell for this...) Otogi.

[Vroomfunkel]

Hmm .. title contains five exclamation marks, and also the words "freaking" and "totally". This must be another topic from Anthony1 ..

I predict the first post will contain more than a screen's worth of text, in order to say something that the title pretty much explains anyway.

Hey presto! I'm right!

Vroomfunkel

[Crush Crawfish]

what people fail to see is that the NFL 2K series was Sega's best seller. The loss of revenue could be a fatal blow to sega.


This is what I'm worried about too. I couldn't care less about sports games, but the last thing I ever want to see is a great company like sega go out of business.

[FlufflePuff]

This is the perfect excuse to remake Mutant League Football!! MMM...explodey death.

[TheRedEye]

eh.....hopefully they both flop and then there will be less sports games to buy as fillers for collections and less sports games to clutter the shelves at stores .... (can you tell i dont like sports games?)

yeah because the entire videogame industry is dependent on collectors looking for rare finds, and not on multi million dollar cash cows :roll:

Screw it, let's just have another crash! It would be easier to complete my collection that way.

[GobopopRevisited]

what people fail to see is that the NFL 2K series was Sega's best seller. The loss of revenue could be a fatal blow to sega.


This is what I'm worried about too. I couldn't care less about sports games, but the last thing I ever want to see is a great company like sega go out of business.

SEGASammy :D

Sammy probably makes more with their Pachinko and Prize stuff in Japan than SEGA in the global Videogame market... They'll never go out of business.

[ubersaurus]

im pretty annoyed too, what i dont understand is EA gets a monopoly on the nfl liscense and thats OK but its illegal to have a monopoly to everyone else....why is EA special? maybe they have some government connections, i hope a friggan tornado rips apart there HQ and destroys everything at night when everyone is sleeping...FLAME ON!

Well, for one, it's not a monopoly. For two, if EA hadn't gotten the license, someone else would, and then you'd have people bitching that they can't play Madden anymore. It wasn't exactly the best situation for EA to be in-either we pay out the ass to get exclusive rights, or we don't get to make em. EA had the money for it, but still. Let's be realistic here.

[Ze_ro]

This is the perfect excuse to remake Mutant League Football!! MMM...explodey death.
Yeah, except for the fact that EA owns that too.

The part about this that annoys me the most is how the press releases seem to imply that this is GOOD for the industry, and the resulting sports games will be better for some reason... why in the hell would anyone expect them to be better? If anything, they'll likely be worse because EA can just sit there with their thumb up their butt and KNOW that they have no competition, so they have no reason to try to add new features.

I'm surprised we haven't heard about an NHL exclusivity agreement yet... the league is in such a mess they'd probably give blowjobs for cash at the moment. Probably the only thing holding up an agreement is the fact that no one has any idea when the sport will actually start up again.

In the meantime, can I suggest that some company make a CFL football game? I can't imagine a CFL license would cost very much... heck, the league would probably GIVE you a license, just because they know it'd be free advertising.

--Zero