EA Still Owns the NFL License Exclusively

[K33057]

Bottom line is===$$$$$
EA is in control and making Money like crazy as is the NFL..
So its either madden or enjoy any other game we have..
Truly time to get over it and move on...

[OriolesFanRD]

Just stop buying the game. Do what some folks do for a day with gas. Don't buy Madden at launch. EA would flip tables and start to take the community seriously. But if you continue to buy this hot garbage, they'll continue to give you..... HOT GARBAGE.

lol @ EA for not having features from PS2 edition of Madden. Your fail is strong.

[FBall Life]

Quote: Originally Posted by OriolesFanRD

Just stop buying the game. Do what some folks do for a day with gas. Don't buy Madden at launch. EA would flip tables and start to take the community seriously. But if you continue to buy this hot garbage, they'll continue to give you..... HOT GARBAGE. lol @ EA for not having features from PS2 edition of Madden. Your fail is strong.

I've been saying this for the longest time. If everyone in this community could band together and not buy Madden for a year, as well as get as many of our friends to not buy Madden for a year, we could make a pretty damn good dent. You don't HAVE to buy Madden. Go a year with last year's game. If you want change, then FINALLY do something about it.

[apollon42]

When 2k5 was out, most of my friends still played Madden. I feel like Madden is catering toward the casual gamer crowd. People like my brother who will buy Madden but only play head to head with their buddies while drinking beers. Not hardcore gamers like us. Those casual gamers think that Madden is awesome. They could care less about tattoos, presentation, running animations, ect. We are the minority. Most of my friends thought the running animations in 2k were terrible and they looked like they had a stick up their behind. They also hated All Pro 2k8 because they had "fake" teams. But my friends were casual gamers. But that's why 2k isn't making another game ... because we are the minority.

[sword1986]

If 2K was still making football games to this day, Madden would turn out to be just like NBA Live.

[iamgramps]

Quote: Originally Posted by dkp23

Look at 2k14, imo, 2k is catering and making a sim bball game. The stuff i use to do on the old lives running around like playing run n gun on the arcade i couldnt do. I dont see that bball game getting hated on, it gets praised for the innovation and the great graphics. The realism and how authentic the game plays with momentum and physics. You may see an odd play every so often, but you arent going to be running around with a player slicing through the defense and scoring 100 points, unless you are playing on low level. I dont see why EA can't take that approach too, if they create a great simulator, people would love it and the notion that the casual gamer wont, i dont think that is true. I think they would, people like realism and the casual gamer loves graphics. I am not talking about stupid gameplay trailers with upclose shots, but great graphics on the screen when you actually play the game. Really, either EA is catering to the casual more or they just have a horrid development team that can't get it right, either way,it is bad. My guess is, they are probably still using the same code from madden 06. Time to scrap it up and build a brand new engine. Every year, it is "we built it from the ground up", im sure nothing was built from the ground up at this point as many aspects of the game remain the same and people continue to whine about the same issues every single year.

Read the 2k forums and play online. My experience was not a sim experience at all. As far as 2k5 and Madden, 2k, IMO, was a different experience; not a better one. I enjoy the heck out of Madden, and I always will.

[iamgramps]

Quote: Originally Posted by FBall Life

I've been saying this for the longest time. If everyone in this community could band together and not buy Madden for a year, as well as get as many of our friends to not buy Madden for a year, we could make a pretty damn good dent. You don't HAVE to buy Madden. Go a year with last year's game. If you want change, then FINALLY do something about it.

Lol...I hope you know as long as Madden exist, this will never EVER happen. Madden is to good of a product, especially to the "casual" gamer like me. I don't have a lot of time to play video games these days, but when I do, my game of choice is Madden. So, why would people like me even consider your suggestion as an option.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by sword1986

If 2K was still making football games to this day, Madden would turn out to be just like NBA Live.

In all honesty, I have found myself saying this at times (more out of frustration than anything else), but I actually don't believe this to be true. I think Madden would have turned out to be an entirely different game and instead of one really weak football product on last gen, we would have had 2 really great ones. I sat down late last night and read over a large portion of the Pecover lawsuit documents. A lot of the things I saw in there were very disheartening all around (and not all on EA's shoulders), but the biggest eye catcher was a section that talked about EA's poor quality football game by their own admission. Executives in the document testified in a court of law that they agreed that their football titles were very lacking and showed very small year over year improvement. However, this wasn't the big bomb of the section (in my mind at least). The biggest surprise was the fact that an EA Tiburon producer sent emails to EA executives urging them NOT to renew the exclusive license with the NFL because they "were at their best when they had someone to beat" and it would also be cheaper.

I was amazed that a Tiburon producer actually could see the light here, and that he realized that Tiburon had gone completely down the drain with their flagship franchise at this time. There are also direct quotes in there from Larry Probst talking about acquiring exclusives for all other football avenues to prevent any threat from take 2 whatsoever. Those of you who believe this was not a calculated move are wrong.

Also, not only eliminating football game competition, but signing the exclusive caused EA to suddenly believe their competition was no longer just football games (since there were none left). After years and years of stating their competition with Madden was only other football games and not other genres. This is probably what lead to a massive move away from simulation football and an emphasis on things like the famed "ring builder" and other ridiculous "features".

Some other notable quotes from the documents:

Quote:

Brandon Justice, a former line producer at EA, testified regarding All Pr o 2K8 “So it's one of those things where I think it's very unfortunate fo r that game in particular because it was such a good product from a game play standpoint that it was very unlikely it would get the expo sure that it deserved because of the lack of a license.” Justice Deposition, p. 66:11-15.

Quote:

Current thinking for countering Sega's $19.99 price and earlier ship date - buy 2 EA SPORTS, get 1 free. [break] Jeff came up with this 2 for 1 program, . I like it, because at least we're doing something to go after them. However, I'd like us to be even more aggressive. [break] I worry that we're not taking this threat as seriously as it is, and that it will be too late once we realize they are stealing market share for us.” 31 August 2004, Subjec t: RE: 2 for 1 Marketing Plans Draft- please review before 9am. Thanks, EA00067807 - EA00067809 at 7807.

Quote:

In an email discussing a Take-Two earnings call in September 2004, Frank Gibeau, EA’s General Manager of North American Publishing, wrote, “They said $19 for this Gen could mean this Gen of hardware and we see $19 again next year. My guess is they grind us for two years at $19 until they buy VC and the PS3 hits. Even then I would be surprised if they move the price unless the leagues do something. They are in this long term. We need to crush them at the transition and get out of this product parity bull****. We can hold a premium price if we are vastly superior to their products on the next gen of hardware.”

Quote:

[bullet] Price vs quality are tough to correlate. I don’t know that we will ever see another 90 rated Madden game. Our quality issues are 100% on our shoulders as a st udio. The business decision around pricing is an attempt to re-coup the massive costs, but they are disjointed decisions.” Chiang, Steve, 29 August 2006, RE: Preston Petty Pester #7: EA’s Public Face, or lack therof, EA00368834 - EA00368837 at 8836.

Quote:

My personal opinion is that we should not put out a Collector’s Edition this year. Coming off a lack luster version last year and an equally weak o ffering this year, I believe we will be eroding the faith of our core consumers in this type of product. In a year in which we face category competition for th e first time since 2004, we need to be doing things that engage and excite our core. I am afraid a SKU like this will put us in a negative light and bring back some of the issues we faced last year around DLC. With such low reve nue numbers on the line for this SKU I do not feel like the reward outweighs the risk.” Erb, Christopher, 15 April 2007, Madden Collector’s Edition, EA00254320 - EA00254321 at 4321

Quote:

Brandon Justice testified “I would sa y that the overall quality of football products in the marketplace suffered significantly due to a lack of competition based on the quality of the product that -- based on Madden, I should say, being the only product in the market. I mean, there's an y number of factors that could contribute to Madden not pushing itself forward, but at the end of the day, the easiest way to do it, when last generation, was look at other games, figure out where you could improve, and then push towards that. And they don't have that measuring stick anymore. A lot more difficult to be self-motivated than it is to be pushed by other people.”

A very unfortunate thing, and it really didn't pan out well for anyone long term except the NFL.