Judge Certifies Class-Action Football Game Pricing Lawsuit Against EA

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

There simply is no blame here to be had on EA's part, they used sound business principles in how they lowered and raised their prices. Sure one can argue that theres an appearance here of some sort of impropriety but an analysis of the situation shows that the NFL simply chose to go with an exclusive agreement and thus the entire "competition eliminated directly relates to the price change" is not a valid argument.

I don't know the particulars of this case, but I would agree it isn't that cut and dry that EA is guilty of anything illegal when considering this individual case. But I don't think anyone could convince me it was strictly a coincidence that the NFL, NCAA, ESPN, and Arena league licenses all went exclusive to EA within the span of a couple months between January and March of 2005 if I'm not mistaken. With MLB following a few months after that, and rumblings that the NBA would go exclusive (and fortunately didn't). I'm guessing they didn't do anything that can be ruled illegal, but it was pretty obvious what they were trying to do when the situation is taken as a whole imo.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by khaliib

If I want NFL, I'll make it. If I want College, I'll do it. Maybe Juco or Highschool, it's on the gamer. The point to this rant, is that there is an easier way around Exclusive Licenses w/out all the drama.

I think it's safe to say that most people wouldn't make that effort though. So it wouldn't be practical for a developer to tie the success of a game to what the user community creates.

[MoutonDocile]

Quote: Originally Posted by khaliib

I just don't get it. Why try the legal route, when there's another way. A developer makes a football game with full customization (combo of NBA 2k11/Backbreaker) and they don't have to shell out money for a license or player likeness. The first thing people do when they get a game is editing. Whether ratings, sliders or uniforms, it all depends on what editing features are open to them to use. "Focus on the engine (gameplay), provied the body (presentation/franchise/online), give us some paints (full customization) and the gaming community will color it how they like it." If I want NFL, I'll make it. If I want College, I'll do it. Maybe Juco or Highschool, it's on the gamer. The point to this rant, is that there is an easier way around Exclusive Licenses w/out all the drama.

The goal of any devs to make money...which means sell LOTS of games. Every single non-licensed football games that came out the past couple of years were commercial failures. Some of them were really good and (for some) better than the licensed stuff, but it didn't matter. People want to buy the "real" thing.

While it's true that you can still buy a great football game without the NFL license, the majority just don't care if it's not licensed.

[Critical Kills]

spankdatazz22 - I agree that EA did what they wanted to do all along but as I've stated many times, the license was the NFL's and various other entities to sell. That's where any sort of legal challenge should be focused, if at all. But again even then it'd make no sense to do that because they own their own product and can sell it to one dev or 20 devs, there is no "monopoly" issue on them and how they manage it since it's a private copyright of a non-public item.

[khaliib]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

I think it's safe to say that most people wouldn't make that effort though. So it wouldn't be practical for a developer to tie the success of a game to what the user community creates.

I would defer your answer to any of the hundreds of roster/slider threads on various forums along with the thousands of team creations from backbreaker and the NCAA online editor.

Take a look at the usage of 3rd party apps like Finn's 2k/Backbreaker editors and Pocketscout's NCAA app for football alone.
The numbers are there that show the willingness/want for full customization.

I would also say that Finn's 2k editors had a role in encouraging what we see in NBA 2k11. Many are saying NBA 2k11 is the standard for future Sports games editing functions.

Also, I would take a look at Ian Cummings thread asking the community for their thought on the idea for future Madden releases.

They really don't have to go this route, but this case is bigger and goes far beyond video games.

[ryan36]

Khaliib-
Those numbers are huge because of the people who come here, and to other sites.

General public= not us
General public= real teams out of the box
Non licensed = not a great seller

Yes, those things have users and an audience, but nowhere near the scale to justify an independent video game development.

[Hollywoods_Finest]

Quote: Originally Posted by illwill10

^^ exactly . if they continued to sell at $30 with the exclusive deal, They would not gain alot of profit. We would get many excuses where "we could not add "X" feature or cant afford more staff because we dont have alot of money or resources"

LOL! the company is charging 59.99$ and there still saying "we could not add X"

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hollywoods_Finest

LOL! the company is charging 59.99$ and there still saying "we could not add X"

exactly