In Depth Reactions to EA / ESPN Deal 206
Gamespot has a piece up about industry analyst reactions to the EA / ESPN deal. They span the gamut from appreciation for a smart business move to a frustration with a company throwing its weight around. From the article: "Has the fat lady finally sung in the sports-game wars? Should all the other publishers pack it in and head for the showers? Opinions are mixed, but this week's news was one of the year's biggest wins--for Electronic Arts. Now, the industry girds for a string of earnings calls where executives at publicly traded companies--EA and others--will surely face a grilling from curious analysts."
Possible Outcome (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Possible Outcome (Score:3, Informative)
I'd consider buying that Madden 95 sega controller they sell at Wal Mart though. I'm sure they did lots of research and determined that was the last year they put out a good Madden game.
Re:Madden 95 sega controller (Score:2, Interesting)
Why didn't they think to throw the brand new teams and rosters onto the old Madden 95 shell? Wouldn't
Re:Madden 95 sega controller (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple, how are they going to sell the new game. The only major reason for buying the latest Madden - or any sports game is to upgrade to the latest teams/players/stats/etc... Marketing people would never allow them to sell Madden 95 with an updated roster.
Re:Possible Outcome (Score:2)
Damn (Score:3, Funny)
that looks like an interesting article.
However, I can't spare the time to read it.
Sincerely,
EA Employee.
Re:Damn (Score:2)
Whose fault is that? Next time you take a job, do some fucking research. Otherwise don't complain when you get what EVERYONE else gets when they work there.
Sincerely,
Someone who doesn't blame others because he made a stupid choice and doesn't have the sack to own up to it
Sega won't go away (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:4, Insightful)
Next year will be interesting to see what Sega does. It will also be dull only having one choice.
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2, Insightful)
Make it configurable and allow imports of configurations. It would be nice to import teams.bin, stadium.bin, and players.bin and now you have something close to the NFL. Of course I do not know how to handle the audio portion of the commentary. Instead of hearing Bettis carried for 97 yards, you would hear number 33 carried for 97 yards.
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2, Informative)
EA is currently the only game in town for a college football product, and even that is restricted only to consoles. One cannot purchase a college football game for a PC -- the *only* college football game is available on Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2.
One can get FIFA and UEFA games on PC (in the US!), but no college football. Never mind that there are millions of fans of college football who pack stadiums on autumn Saturdays.
It's bordering on criminal. I imagi
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
What big two? Surely you don't mean ESPN. If you think having the ESPN franchise will add anything to any game, you're a fool. They're a TV station, with some pseudo-celebrities. How will blathering idiotic commentary (that we all skip over anyway) improve a game?
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
Geez.
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
My idea of "very few" in this case is "not enough to be profitable, or even cover development costs". With that definition, I suspect I am right. The only reason EA bothers with NCAA Football is because it doesn't require any effort for them. They just take the engine being developed for the next Madden, slap on the NCAA-specific content, and release it before Madden to make a quick buck off the people who are happy to spend $100/yr on footba
Yes, go away... (Score:2)
Well, yes, they should go away. They should go away and invent a new game that takes full advantage of the computer medium. Some new game that doesn't just copy the experience of watching a television program based on a bunch of guys running around a field and throwing an odd-shaped ball.
A video game based on football is two-degrees of seperation from the participants of the actual game itself. So go away
Re:LOL- you are not a real man. (Score:2)
Well, yes, most people named Simonetta pick flowers, have played with dolls and still brush their hair. Few of us are guys.
A very high percentage of people I meet that are like you are homosexual...
Admit it, you don't meet all that many people like us.
To every other realistic, red blooded, meat eating MAN who likes to watch football, drink beer, and look at cheerleaders I say let there be more
Re:Sega won't go away (Score:2)
not a good example. (Score:2)
Re:not a good example. (Score:2)
EA Wins (Score:2, Interesting)
On the upside, it might force all non-EA game makers to really upgrade their products on the gameplay front since they will have to win by knockout on the "This game is just hands down better than Madden".
Still, I uspect given the general populations procl
Re:EA Wins (Score:2, Interesting)
The other manufacturers will have to focus on 2 main points:
(1) Free and easily downloadable "unofficial" team/roster sets. This will end up even being a plus because nobody will be playing with outdated rosters -- your favorite team can be as current as
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
You missed one:
(3). Gameplay. I'll use Burnout 3 as an example. It is easily the best racing game many gamers have ever played, and yet, unlike most other games in the genre, it doesn't feature one brand name car-- but has stunning gameplay. It didn't even need heavy marketing, because the word of mouth was so effective. I still enjoy old school NES Double Dribble, for that matter, a basketball game featuring no-name stick figures.
You don't need big names to make a good game, even a sports game.
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
get ready for Madden 2005 to be the stanard game you'll be playing until, oh say, 2010
What? I have to play some crappy football game for five years? Oh wait, you meant standard, and if I were to play football on a computer, which I don't.
I never understood sports re-creation games. I don't even watch football on TV. I like football, but watching it, or playing a computer version of it just seems really boring. I guess if you don't have any friends who are willing to play for real the computer versi
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
You realize that different people enjoy different things, right? And you also realize that there are plenty of people who think _your_ favorite genres of games (assuming you play games at all) are lame and pointless, right?
Well, I'll give you credit for at least ending your post with a question. So I'll give you one answer.
I used to really enjoy watching football and baseball,
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
Translation of your post: "I don't enjoy football video games, so there must be something wrong with people who do enjoy them."
Whoa! No need to get so defensive their sparky. I never said their was anything wrong with liking them, I just asked what people saw in them. You say you like the strategy, and I can see that. I never really played football on a strategy sort of level. It is always more of a "hit people hard and fast, and be sneaky" sort of a game for me. Fancy plays are less my forte.
BTW
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
Whoa! No need to get so defensive their sparky. I never said their was anything wrong with liking them, I just asked what people saw in them.
Okay, I'll buy your assertion that you at least didn't _intend_ to be insulting, but you should be aware that:
I guess if you don't have any friends who are willing to play for real the computer version might make for a really, really lame substitute.
I guess this is just part of the "hoop-dreams" fantasy. I wish I were a famous athlete, but I am too lazy to get of
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
In other words, you're full of shit.
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
Almost every college and professional football player plays Madden religiously.
Occasionally when someone makes an assertion I wonder, "how would they collect the data on that?" It makes a good baseline for judging the likelihood of their being, as you so eloquently put it, "full of shit." I'm guessing that you are certainly full of it. In any case, I just said I don't enjoy the video games, although I do enjoy the sport. Assuming for some reason not related to your credibility that every professional a
Re:EA Wins (Score:2)
As to College players, I can verify it for my school, players I've met from other schools, and media reports. It's possible that such a sample is skewed, but I doubt it.
I'm going to hate the day.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I could care less about whether it's branded ESPN, but if EA signs a deal with the NFL and Madden's the only football game on the block I'm going to be pissed.
Re:I'm going to hate the day.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I'm going to hate the day.... (Score:3, Funny)
\it was as if millions of Canadians' voices cried out in anguish, then was suddenly silenced....
Re:I'm going to hate the day.... (Score:2)
Euro-style capitalism is the answer. (Score:2)
Re:Euro-style capitalism is the answer. (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, with European football (soccer) I guess you need uneven teams just to make sure that someo
Re:Euro-style capitalism is the answer. (Score:2)
Of course, with European football (soccer) I guess you need uneven teams just to make sure that someone's going to get on the scoreboard... God what a boring game. Why don't they widen the goals or something? Jesus.
While I'm not a big fan of soccer, or sports in general, I can appreciate soccer's beauty.
In American football and basketball, what are the final scores? 114-89? The difference that every point makes is minimal.
In soccer, each goal is precious, because normally there are just one or two per
Re:I'm going to hate the day.... (Score:2, Insightful)
This ESPN deal is just the nail in any SEGA attempts at masqurading their next football game as an NFL game. Now they are pretty much forced to explore either an entirely fictional league, or go after one of the lesser known leagues. I know EA also has a deal with the Arena league, and I would assume the NFL deal also has rights to the World
What's next in Madden 2kx ? (Score:2, Interesting)
I sure hope we do not have stale games with roster updates and better graphics.
long contracts mean weak projections (Score:5, Interesting)
The score... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The score... (Score:2)
pirates 1, EA 1
Re:The score... (Score:2)
When Sega scored the ESPN license, why wasn't it Sega 1, Customers 0?
Oh, right, we hate EA.
Re:The score... (Score:2)
Re:The score... (Score:2)
ESPN 2kX = Sega 1, Customers 1
Re:The score... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see what the big deal about this deal is.. (Score:2)
The exclusive NFL deal was a lot worse for competition..
Re:I don't see what the big deal about this deal i (Score:2, Insightful)
You are missing something, but that's because you aren't a fan of ESPN. There is a very real and devoted group out there who love ESPN. They love SportsCenter, their commercials ("This is SportsCenter"), and their personalities (Dan Patrick, Boomer, Dick Vitale, etc.). ESPN has garnered an MTV-like (and I mean 1980's MTV) aura and devotion to it.
Combined with the
Re:I don't see what the big deal about this deal i (Score:2)
Re:I don't see what the big deal about this deal i (Score:2, Insightful)
If EA wins, it may lose (Score:2)
Imagine that if only one music group controlled a genre of music, e.g., if only the Rolling Stones played the blues (it's a joke damit!). Overtime fans of the blues would get bored of the same content being produced and would stop listening.
This could happen here too. Variety in gaming helps the entire gaming industry by keeping people excited and interested.
My biggest problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't so much that they screwed Sega over, yet again, or that real NFL players won't be in any Sega football game, or that the teams won't be either. You could very easily create fake teams that looked like their real-life counterparts, and players that mimicked the real ones, then jsut give options to change the names on everything. The thing you can't get around, however, is that they can't use the real stadiums.
And, as far as I know, they don't have an exclusive license on college football. I think Sega should refocus their efforts on college football, and simply blow away the market while they still have a chance.
Re:My biggest problem (Score:2)
What about XFL football? (Score:2, Interesting)
but what about just going with the old XFL? there was some pretty cools tuff in there that could make a video game quite fun... and it's got to be pretty cheap, same idea and all behind it, but you can go nuts with the features since XFL probably would have liked them...
All you need is to rememb
Re:What about XFL football? (Score:2)
A non-NFL licenced game would be like generic Cherrios in a plastic bag. Sure it may taste the same but people will still pay for the fancy box thinking it really tast
Shades of Microsoft... (Score:2, Redundant)
What I thought most interesting in the article was the quote from the Morgan Securities analyst. He said, "There's nothing illegal or unethical about what EA is doing....Microsoft did the same kind of things to improve its position."
Isn't it funny how seemingly incompatible those two phrases are? Nearly everyone these days recognizes that Microsoft is a monopoly, including the government. How exactly does one think you get to be a monopoly? It's by doing the sort of things that EA is doing (in the beginnin
Re:Shades of Microsoft... (Score:2)
And before all you slahbots flame me, I own an iBook, and run Fedora Core 2 on my desktop. I don't own a single computer (out of 5) that runs any version of WIndows. If microsoft were a monopoly, none of this would be possible.
Attempting to be a monopoly is not the same as actually BEING a monopoly. I know hating on MS will get you ka
You call that in depth? (Score:3, Insightful)
Time to reinvent the wheel (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, whether these are stupid ideas or not, now is the time for game designers to innovate instead of whine about EA. If they get truly desperate, they can always go and find some Finnish computer science student who's been thinking about designing a game engine. I hear they have great ideas...
Re:Time to reinvent the wheel (Score:2, Informative)
Chaos League [chaosleaguegame.com]
Re:Time to reinvent the wheel (Score:2)
The serious sports gamers--the guys who are willing to fork over $50 to re-buy their favorite football franchise year after year--want the game to be as realistic as possible.
The people who are interested in playing football with mutants or Mario or whatever are more of a niche market, and generally won't keep buying new versions of the game on a yearly basis.
Re:Time to reinvent the wheel (Score:2)
I don't really care how they or do it, or whether they succeed or not, but that's what they are going to have to do...
Maybe its positive... (Score:3, Insightful)
I preferred the ESPN football the last few years. The gameplay was better in ESPN/Sega, but not so much so that one was much better than the other. But the voice over work was much less irritating and made for a better game experience.
The exclusivity for EA and the NFL is a serious problem and I think it will lower the innovation in the football genre and it concerns me greatly, but ESPN licensing, is not that big of a deal to me.
Re:Maybe its positive... (Score:2)
Did you ever consider that maybe it was Sega and not ESPN that made the game a good game?
Brand Name != Sports (Score:2)
Generic Sports != Sales (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Generic Sports != Sales (Score:2)
Wake me up when Tiger Woods PGA Tour is more fun than Mario Golf.
Perscrumption (Score:3, Funny)
The thing that's galling about this is the amount of lip-service that EA has given in the past to supporting the video game ecosystem. They've maintained they don't want to be the only video game developer, they just want to be the best. However, as soon as they are faced with truly healthy competition, their response is to burn a lot of resources killing it off. EA was never in danger of losing the NFL license, and the ESPN brand carries less weight than the Madden brand in the football game market. They have mentioned some possible features with ESPN data-feeds, but to me this deal just feels like insult to injury.
Not the first time ESPN got licensed... (Score:2)
Just because EA is involved doesn't mean a) it will succede, and b) that ESPN won't cancel the deal if they're unhappy.
*sigh* Bad memories... *starts rocking back and forth sucking thumb*
EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
Re:EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
Dude why do fans deserve it?? Do you just hate people that like things you don't like??
Re:EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
Lack of sympathy is not the same thing as hatred. If you accept for a moment that EA/NFL/etc. are as I say, who made them rich? Who continues to make them so? Why?
Re:EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
I think you are playing word semantics and answering a question with a question.
Re:EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
http://members.dodo.net.au/~grindercom/argument.j
Re:EA and pro sports: (Score:2)
ESPN = NFL, MLB, NHL ??? (Score:2)
Okay, I'm not exactly an expert on how each sports league handles the contracts for their respective trademarks and exclusive use in video games, but I would be very surprised to learn that ESPN has a long term deal with each of them.
The article states that ESPN has only a 5-year deal with the NFL. What's to stop another network/entity from striking an exclusive deal after that contract terminates ? What if Murdock at Fox wants to become the next game mogule and uses his weight to get an exclusive Fox/N
Re:ESPN = NFL, MLB, NHL ??? (Score:2)
ESPN has nothing to do with EA's right to use the names of NFL teams and players in their games. EA has to have a deal with the NFL to use team names, and a deal with the NFLPA (Players Association) to use player names. The REAL problem here isn't the ESPN deal, it's the other deal EA made--the deal they made with the NFL to get _exclusive_ rights to team and player names. (I assume that's the 5-year deal you read about; that deal h
Free of license has advantages.. (Score:2)
With the other sports companies now focusing on their games instead of being true to the real thing or adhering to the various license standards, maybe we'll see more old school action oriented style sports games.
Sports Metaphor?? (Score:2)
A slap??! Oh, he was talking about Warren Moon..
Analyst Doublespeak (Score:2)
Thats a pretty good illustration of one of the dangers of "free market" capitalism: It needs good competition to remain healthy, and if there is nothing to ensure that it actually stays free market then those with the means will erect barriers to competition, and "the market" may not correct it. Nevermind that predatory business practices are technically illegal, I understand that t
A more creative take on sports games is needed (Score:2)
Re:A more creative take on sports games is needed (Score:2)
ESPN's effect on sports... (Score:3, Insightful)
Take the NBA for instance. The game has changed and become a league where players are more concerned with getting on SportsCenter, than actually playing well and winning. Being on SportsCenter, probably means you made some amazing dunk and therefore will be getting notoriety for a quiet inconsequently part of the game.
On the analysis front, ESPN does a great job of injecting meaningless storylines into games. They over analyze sports, bring up meaningless statistics and really loose focus on the most important part of sports, the actual athletic contest.
This a terrible move for the future of sports games. ESPN will undoubtedly bash sports fans over the head with overblown tie-ins and advertisements.
For someone who loves sports and video games, I'm saddened by this corporate sponsorship.
EA is a plague (Score:2)
They buy up companies and run them into the ground.
They leech off of sure money-makers and run them into the ground.
They hire bright young programmers and run them into the ground, knowing there are more waiting in the queue.
Finally, I will never forgive them for destroying Maxis and Westwood Studios.
I'm sick of the incessant sports games; they bought up and buried so many of the creative companies who would actually innovate and pose real competition, instead of
Re:EA is a plague (Score:2)
Ever since they ate up Westwood Studios, I couldn't find anything that equaled the original RedAlert.
I clap with joy to know Sims online was a disaster for the EA dictators.
Buy Sony and make an F1 game (Score:2)
--D
Re:Open up the community aspect (Score:2)
Re:Open up the community aspect (Score:2)
Re:Old Times (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Old Times (Score:2)
It's almost impossible to compete with EA in the arena of "real" sports games.
Right. Tell that to Sega who for the last several years has put out a great game (I'd say better than Madden this last year, and lots cheaper). The reason EA bought up the exclusive contract is because they were scared of the competition.
Re:Old Times (Score:2)
If I remember correctly, the first big hit was EA's "One on One: Dr. J vs Larry Bird", the first game to model real athletes. And that was back in the good ol' 8-bit times. That was such a cool game, it all went downhill from there.
Re:Old Times (Score:2)
Re:Old Times (Score:2)
Dear God,
Please do not let Madden curse my Steelers. Peyton Manning is already cursed, just put him on the cover.
Re:Could backfire on EA (Score:2)
ESPN was THE cable sports channel, MTV was really Teenager Television, Microsoft's operating system was on nearly every PC, we had a president named George Bush, and we had U.S. troops fighting a war in Iraq.
Not that I disagree with your general point that things change, but you didn't pick the best example. And it's probably a good bet that ESPN will still be the most popular cable sports network; more importantly, that doesn't even matter, because it's really the
Re:Maybe we don't lose, completely... (Score:2)
And that on top of the people who won't buy it at all without the NFL license means that Sega might have to completely give up on making football games, which means maybe you really will lose.
Re:It is time to bring back Mutant League Football (Score:2)