EA Does It Again!

Oh

My

God



...um, what's the AFL again?

EAs aquisition of the exclusive NFL rights didnt bother me at all.. As far as Im concerned, they offered the best football experience in a video game anyway, and the new deal is probably going to bring us an iteration of Madden football that even more closely replicates the real deal we watch every week on TV.. Im looking very excited to see what they bring us next year..

However, the AFL? Its not like Im a fan of the AFL, or really know anything about the leauge. For me, this looks like an attempt by EA to ensure that the only competition they have for their Madden series is a fictitous sport, and no where near a lifelike game.. Agreed?

To date I cant think of a single AFL game. Why the AFL? Is my assumption correct?

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Original post by Nahoopii To date I cant think of a single AFL game. Why the AFL? Is my assumption correct?

There were AFL games. I remember reading about them in OPM. I think the reason they took the AFL license was because it was a good second league to go with since they can't get the NFL licenses. And now they can't even do that.

This isn't just about football. They are trying to own the entire industry. They are creating an environment where other people cannot compete.

Somebody should smack them upside the head and tell them that COMPETITION SPURRS INNOVATION AND QUALITY.

sheesh. :( sorry, it's just really unnerving

eh no one was gonna do the AFL anyway, the only serious competitor was the 2k series and take 2 basically said football games don't make us enough money to try alternate settings. All this does is give us another football game. The NFL deal was 1000x more important than this.

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Original post by cloudscapes Somebody should smack them upside the head and tell them that COMPETITION SPURRS INNOVATION AND QUALITY.

Why would that drive them to open up the market? If anything, it would discourage them from allowing competition because they'd have to work harder.

While the madden games may be good now, there will soon be no assurance that they will be good. If it doesn't have anything to compete against, what motivation do they have in keeping their games anything but marginally better than their last title?

Heh, at least someone can always make a CFL game :D
...for now....

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Original post by falkone Quote: Original post by cloudscapes Somebody should smack them upside the head and tell them that COMPETITION SPURRS INNOVATION AND QUALITY. Why would that drive them to open up the market?

I think that's taken care of by the smackin' them upside the head.

Is there no one here that thinks this is pretty cool?
Everyone talks of owning a game company and dominating the industry one day,..being number 1,etc,etc. (at the least many have dreamt of owning a really cool company and i dont think too many people want to be second best,..i know i dont)
Well this is one company that looks like its doing it! I think i would be crushing all opposition if i was in the position to do so like EA. In fact one day i hope to take down EA. Business is ruthless. Sorry to be the evil one but i can relate to EA or whoever is responsible for this.
The buying everything is fine with me. The only thing i'd change is the treatment of employees, if the reports are true (and i think in some cases, they are, but i dont want to get all holy when i've never personally worked there).

In summary,
1.) I see nothing wrong with domination. Crush opposition by all means.
2.) but if you're gonna do it, at least treat your employees,friends and people that matter well, sharing the spoils of war with them.

Some people will disagree with me,..
but i dont give a,....!!!

p.s. If i was whoever it is at EA responsible for doing this, i would go into music next and then media and tv,.and then i'd own the earth and be more powerful than presidents,..and then i'd buy mars.

p.s. 2: I once read a business mag in which the guy running EA or one of them stated his goal of being the #1 software entertainment company in the world.
Fingers up to him,..except for the employee treatment...share the love!
oh yeah,..i think the mag was businessweek.

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Original post by Nahoopii However, the AFL?

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From the article The partnership is a perfect match when considering customer demographics of both the AFL and EA. According to the ESPN Sports Poll, the AFL indexes at 186 for ages 12-17 and 127 for ages 18-24. Approximately 46 percent of all 12-17 year olds are fans of the AFL. ... Often recognized as one of the nation's most affordable and fan-friendly sports leagues, the Arena Football League, the second-longest running football league in U.S. history, will begin its 19th season in January 2005.

Untapped market? Consider the synergies, too: Kurt Warner came up from the AFL to the NFL, and went on to lead the St. Louis Rams to the Superbowl and the World Championship. With this AFL/NFL exclusive license scenario, utilizing memory cards or hard drives, EA Sports could allow players to add that to the mix, just as the graduating class of players from NCAA Football can be imported as the following season's rookie class in Madden.

On a related note, the exclusive NBA license will be much much harder to obtain, because NBA Live doesn't dominate its market segment the way Madden does.

Go New York Dragons!

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Original post by Nahoopii EAs aquisition of the exclusive NFL rights didnt bother me at all.. As far as Im concerned, they offered the best football experience in a video game anyway, and the new deal is probably going to bring us an iteration of Madden football that even more closely replicates the real deal we watch every week on TV.. Im looking very excited to see what they bring us next year.. However, the AFL? Its not like Im a fan of the AFL, or really know anything about the leauge. For me, this looks like an attempt by EA to ensure that the only competition they have for their Madden series is a fictitous sport, and no where near a lifelike game.. Agreed? To date I cant think of a single AFL game. Why the AFL? Is my assumption correct?

Your logic makes no sense...Hitler's publicists were the best in the business but was it a good thing they ran the German media?

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Original post by Perfunction Your logic makes no sense...Hitler's publicists were the best in the business but was it a good thing they ran the German media?

How is that remotely analogous? Seriously, people, stop comparing everything to Nazi Germany. You nearly forced me to misapply Godwin's Law!

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Original post by cloudscapes Somebody should smack them upside the head and tell them that COMPETITION SPURRS INNOVATION AND QUALITY. sheesh. :( sorry, it's just really unnerving

I agree, the fact that they are going to own whatever rights it is means that they can simply produce a game that can't be rivalled properly.

Plus u the reason they would do this is because u get alot of young children who like 'official'. This would be like kids liking FIFA over Pro evolution (pro evo in my opinion is a better game even without some prper names etc).

Market domination is what all the companies strive after and if EA can build this 'official' image then they will havea strong piece.

ace

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Original post by Oluseyi Quote: Original post by Perfunction Your logic makes no sense...Hitler's publicists were the best in the business but was it a good thing they ran the German media? How is that remotely analogous? Seriously, people, stop comparing everything to Nazi Germany. You nearly forced me to misapply Godwin's Law!

the reference merely came up because it was the last thing i learned in history class. how is it not analogous? its very extreme but oh well. gee, i want to have one company own the rights to every sports genre so that i either play how the games they want me to how they want me to or i get to play with Joe Sucksadic of the Moon Raiders. part of the fun of playing sports games is getting to play with things that are real. not everyone likes madden either. i hate listening to that old bastard on both the television and in a video games.

is it such a problem that some of us don't want big corporations owning everything?

Monopolies are bad, remember?

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Original post by Perfunction Your logic makes no sense...Hitler's publicists were the best in the business but was it a good thing they ran the German media?

Let me rephrase in case I didnt get my original comment accross:
-I dont mind the NFL license, for me it makes sense. Dominate the market, cut the competitors legs from under them. End result: possibly (probably) a more refined football game that even more closely mimics live football programming.
-Concerning the AFL license, I dont "disagree" with it, I was merely commenting "why" EA would do it. I believe its only to enforce point #1, do you all agree? (i.e. Only to further cut the competitors legs off?)

From those statements, somehow I have become a protaganist for a Nazi regime. No, not really, just a business enthusiasts. Are you to tell me, that because the Nazis did so many evil things, that they were not a well organized group that did itself justice when making decisions on coming to power?

Its funny that everyone frowns upon the business decisions of EA, however given the opportunity, would anyone here actually turn down the exclusive rights? If you were offered the exclusive rights to design any game that is modeled around anything realistic, ie. a sport, a city, the act of killing, etc, wouldnt you all take the necessary steps to ensure your license? How about having the exclusive rights to develop MMORPGs? Its all along the same line. Discredit EA for the way they treat their employees, sure!! But dont deny the obvious business decisions they are making, especially ones so beneficial to that which brought them to power in the first place..

Nahoopii,..i'm right behind you. Finally someone who agrees.

Let he who would refuse exclusive rights cast the first stone!!!

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Original post by Access Let he who would refuse exclusive rights cast the first stone!!!

Nobody gets OFFERED exclusive rights. They drove a dump truck full of money up to whoever's house and bought away their competition, and yet another corner of the industry.

I really love the way how GD.net finds a way to turn every topic into a hitler topic.[sick][depressed][flaming]

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Original post by Vampyre_Dark Nobody gets OFFERED exclusive rights.

Completely. Beside. The. Point.

How come nobody's here villifying the NFL and Players, Inc.? Because just about no one really cares. This entire issue is an instance of the Goliath/Persecution Complex, in which large entities in domains that interest us (Microsoft, EA) are automatically assumed to be in the wrong. The merits of the issue are completely irrelevant, since this is ideology rather than rationality.

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Original post by Perfunction the reference merely came up because it was the last thing i learned in history class. how is it not analogous? its very extreme but oh well. gee, i want to have one company own the rights to every sports genre so that i either play how the games they want me to how they want me to or i get to play with Joe Sucksadic of the Moon Raiders. part of the fun of playing sports games is getting to play with things that are real. not everyone likes madden either. i hate listening to that old bastard on both the television and in a video games.

Nothing you have said is a right. NFL Football is a commercial product, and there are rights owners, and it is their constitutional right to dispose with those property and IP rights as they wish. And you dare to compare that to Hitler and his goons?

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is it such a problem that some of us don't want big corporations owning everything?

No. It is, however, a problem that you feel it is logical and acceptable to compare them to a political regime responsible for crimes against humanity, the deaths of millions, and systematic eradication of the members of a particular ethnicity/faith. Are you suggesting that the two (buying exclusive sports licenses and killing Jews) are comparable?

It's disturbing how you compare what is essentially your greed - your desire to consume a particular product - with the rights of others to live.