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Businesses Entertainment Games

EA Signs College Football License Deal 72

Posted by Zonk from the stuck-a-feather-in-their-cap dept.
Yet another license falls into the hands of the EA sports game crafters. The Business Wire is reporting that EA Games has signed a six year agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company. This allows EA the exclusive use of teams, stadiums, etc, etc. From the article: "Our NCAA football franchise is a key element in our EA SPORTS brand lineup and we are pleased to have secured the NCAA license...There is an unrivaled loyalty our fans have for the game, and this agreement with CLC allows EA to continue to deliver to fans the best, most innovative college football experience now and for years to come."
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EA Signs College Football License Deal More

EA Signs College Football License Deal

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  • Hmmm, EA gets another sports exclusive. Nothing to see here folks!
  • If other developers actually developed College Football Games.

    Unfortunately now other developers won't even get that chance.
    • After they locked up the NFL, other developers may have been eyeing the NCAA as an alternative.

      That's been taken care of now thanks to EA's innovative Let no customer choice go unremoved campaign.
    • Sega has been making great NCAA football games for the past few years... in addition to their great NFL games and college basketball and NBA games. This year they'll be lucky if they are allowed to make any sports games whatsoever. Plus, there are other studios like 989 and Midway that have a history of sports games that might no longer continue. Sega's sports games have been much better than EA's for a while now, and it will be unfortunate to see them go. This is extremely anticompetative and I don't un

  • Great... more Madden action! (Score:3, Funny)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @03:44PM (#12204306)
    Now for college sports! woot!

    Who buys this crap anyway?
    • i would say a majority of college students and alumni buy this crap.
    • "more Madden action"

      Madden is PRO football, not college. The character and style of play is different.

      "Who buys this crap anyway?"

      Oh, I don't know...maybe the people who went to the colleges in question? Other fans? There ARE other people that like games that involve other things than going on shooting rampages and getting the Golden Key to acheive First Level Mage or something...
      • You can't be serious about that Madden is different stuff right? Anyone with the slightest amount of sense can clearly see it's the same game with different teams and stadiums...and usually the NCAA one is last years engine to boot.
        • "Anyone with the slightest amount of sense can clearly see it's the same game with different teams and stadiums...and usually the NCAA one is last years engine to boot."

          I was mocking the parent post's lack of knowledge of football. I read his post to mean "madden = football", as in all kinds of football are the same; you see one kind, you see it all. Football fans know differently.

          I concur with your statement about the games being knockoffs of each other...this is precisely one of the things that I worry

          • Re:Great... more Madden action! (Score:4, Insightful)

            by servognome ( 738846 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @06:02PM (#12205935)
            this is precisely one of the things that I worry about, that they'll indeed just repackage a pro game with some different logos, and that just wouldn't be the same.
            It's not like college football and pro football are significantly different. The core engine should be the same, it's the same sport. The only slight tweaks you can really do are off the field, with the primary difference being recruiting vs contract negotiations. Everything else you can do would just be there to add "flavor." Making sure players go to class isn't a compelling feature, and the NCAA probably doesn't want the game to deal with arrests, illegal booster contributions, etc.

            • Re:Great... more Madden action! (Score:4, Insightful)

              by KingJoshi ( 615691 ) <slashdot@joshi.tk> on Monday April 11, 2005 @09:43PM (#12207739) Homepage
              Yes and no. You have to make sure the game plays well with the differences of college and pro. The Option is still run by various teams in college. There are more teams and more variety of offenses. Speed in the pro game negates the option and has other influences in the game. The designers, developers and testers must make sure that the changes in rules, players, advantage to home team, atmosphere are adequately incaptured in the game. Maybe no significant difference, but A LOT of minor differences (both on and off the field).
          • "I read his post to mean "madden = football", as in all kinds of football are the same"

            You read wrong. We're talking about games here, not leagues. I never understood the viability of sports game franchises at all. Why would you drop $50 or $60 on Madden 2005 if you already own 2004?

            It obvious to anyone that football is football from a game designer's perspective. If you think EA isn't just changing some uniforms and stadiums for an NCAA football game, you're deluding yourself.
            • Well, the football games have a lot more to them than what is happening on the field. Dynasty mode vs. Franchise mode...things like that.

              Take a look at this discussion. [utopiafootball.com] There are tons more, just going to look for them.

              Saying that the games are the same is like saying that Diablo II and Dungeon Siege are the same game...you just run around and kill things with a sword...
  • I just can't wait untill EA unpredictably take the franchise and make a wholly uninspiring series of games and win in the market via massive marketing rather then any real attempt at innovative game concepts or quality....
    • Apparently you've never played any of EA's College Football Games, or you would know that happened about 5 years ago.

  • the jargon of evil. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by muel ( 132794 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @03:50PM (#12204412)
    "...this agreement with CLC allows EA to continue to deliver to fans the best, most innovative college football experience now and for years to come."

    Why the outright lie, EA? The people who read these press releases aren't the ones who'll fall for that dummy logic. We already know that these agreements only "allow" EA to monopolize the authenticity of the respective sports involved.

    What's interesting about this, though, is that NCAA games have always had restrictions - player names have been forbidden for years, and yet gamers haven't balked and been upset. This'll cripple competitors' use of official songs, logos, team names and mascots, but this is the one category of sports game "monopolies" that might actually work out for competitors.

    Not to mention, this all will wind up creating backdoor, Internet-assisted "player editing" capabilities in competitors' games. PS2 and XBox Internet users will certainly be able to sneakily insert all the "official" information into the games. At least, I hope.

    • Re:the jargon of evil. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bogie ( 31020 )
      "Not to mention, this all will wind up creating backdoor, Internet-assisted "player editing" capabilities in competitors' games. PS2 and XBox Internet users will certainly be able to sneakily insert all the "official" information into the games. At least, I hope."

      I think its more likely that they'll just stop making NCAA football games. I know unofficailly its been done in the past but considering how much it costs to develop and market a game these days I can just see where eventually you have one nfl gam
      • Most NCAA games allows you to edit your player names and stats for this very reason. It lets you recreate your home team (or the whole bloody league) unencumbered by the restriction against "students" having conflicts of interest.

        While I would like to see a swing towards more fantasy-based and original takes on sports, like Cyberball, I'm not holding my breath. It's very difficulty to sell fantasy sports games to publishers, because even if an accurate sports game is junk it will still sell ok, but the n

  • OK Let's cover it all right here (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11, 2005 @03:59PM (#12204544)
    Pick your applicable Slashdot response here:

    1. EA is evil
    2. This is a monopoly, aren't monopolies illegal?
    3. OMG isn't someone going to do something about this?
    3a. Let's boycott EA!
    4. Blah blah blah, just don't buy the game, you have this right as a consumer, blah blah.
    5. Random Nostalgia Comment about playing some football game with mutants, and how there still a possibility for innovation (hint, not very likely at all).
    6. Comment about all Madden games after '92 sucking ass.

    Am I missing anything?
    • you forgot the one about EA's working environment.

    • One More... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DesScorp ( 410532 )
      "Am I missing anything?"

      Yeah..."We're geeks, sports suck, who cares".

      The last time there was a story that touched on Football here, there were a lot of posts along the lines of "I hate sports, the jocks beat me up in high school", etc. The whole "geeks have to be wusses that hate sports" thing chaps my ass.
      • Thank you. I'm tired of these "why would anyone pay for this garbage" threads. The one that irked me today was "I don't own a TV and I haven't for 15 years so I'm better than you" (to paraphrase).

        Obviously, there's a market. To each his own.
      • This is really not about sports. It has to do with "VIDEO GAMES", and that's the problem!

        No congress man or supreme court is going to give a flying fuck defending video game rights. To even bring up this subject would be committing political suicide. Hence the name "GAMES"... it's assumed to be unimportant.

        Take-Two should have the right to use the licenses. They don't. It's a clear monopoly, and no one would step in. EA is owning the licenses like SLAVERY. It's simply wrong.

    • Re:OK Let's cover it all right here (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @04:46PM (#12205119) Journal
      And to get the standard replies out of the way:

      1. Yep.
      2. Not really. You don't need the players' or teams' names to make a football game. I remember some of the old ones calling their teams just "Denver" and "Chicago," with modified logos and player names spelled differently than the real ones. Even a randomly generated roster would work - and could work BETTER, for replay value. Even then, can one type of game make a monopoly? Saying that would lead us to say that Sega has a monopoly on games like Sonic, or that Bioware has a monopoly on Star Wars RPGs. Even taking into account all the other games that EA makes, they're still not a monopoly. Big, yes. Biggest, certainly. But they're still not even a majority of the video game industry, let alone a monopoly.
      3. For the same reason nobody's done anything about Microsoft. When the gorrilla wants the best seat in the monkey house, the capuchins aren't going to pursuade him to move.
      3a. Great and fine, but you'll never get enough people behind it. Try, though, even an unheard and unnoticed protest is a protest just the same.
      4. As a consumer, you also have the right to influence other consumers. By telling them WHY EA is a bad company, you hope to also get them to excercise their rights as consumers.
      5. And if somebody made a football game with mutants now, it wouldn't be innovation. NFL Blitz was innovation, but now if another game goes that route, it won't be innovative either. Where does it go from here? Invent a new, simmilar game? Is it still football at that point?
      6. I don't remember them being good before 92 either.

      • You don't need the players' or teams' names to make a football game. I remember some of the old ones calling their teams just "Denver" and "Chicago," with modified logos and player names spelled differently than the real ones.

        ...unless you're a sports fan. Around /., many people need to be reminded that being a nerdy gamer and a sports fan are not mutually exclusive. I'm probably not going to pick up NCAA 2006 because 2005 was a step backwards, but I've got 1998, 2000, 2002 - 2005. Why? I'm an insa

    • Am I missing anything?

      Yup.

      7. You can look forward to C.F.L. '06 on store shelves next year.

  • Times like this... (Score:4, Funny)

    by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <<tukaro> <at> <gmail.com>> on Monday April 11, 2005 @04:20PM (#12204828) Homepage Journal
    ...I'm reminded of the fact that I never have, and never will, play a sport simulation game. Then I smile. Then I shed a tear over the crushed Crunch bar.

    And then I smile again.

  • Maybe one day... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Reignking ( 832642 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @04:25PM (#12204885) Journal
    Maybe EA will get off of its ass and make NCAA Football for the PC, instead of just PS2, because they'll need to try to recoup the license cost? I hope so, because I wanted to try the game out, but couldn't...

  • OMFG (Score:1)

    by CaseM ( 746707 )
    Today was going too well, so I needed a good kick to the face to bring me back to reality, thanks.

    Really enjoyed College Hoops 2k5, too, and now it looks like that's gone.
  • Lovely; now EA can charge through the nose because no one else makes college games.

    What really sucks here is that in the pros, the players union can negotiate their own game deals; "The official game of NFL Players", that sort of thing. There's no such option for college ball.
    • Screw those college football and NFL games... EA will be sorry when people lose interest and someone starts putting out High School and pee-wee football games that feature steroid use, bangin cheer leaders, drunkin parties after the games, pedophile coaches, avoiding getting shot in school shootings after picking on nerds etc... After that, EA would either have to go around getting exclusivity deals w/ high schools all around the country, or do us one better by cutting a deal with the UCB ( http://www.uprig [uprightcitizens.org]
  • Let the obligatory bashing of EA begin! ;)

    (Death to all companies that try to act in their best interest!...or something like that)

    And I wonder what will happen if say the next couple Madden's turn out to be surprisingly good?...I wonder if people will eat their words, or not...
    • And I wonder what will happen if say the next couple Madden's turn out to be surprisingly good?...I wonder if people will eat their words, or not...

      Probably not. You don't need an exclusive license in order to make something "surprisingly good."
      • Either you are completely missing my point, or that doesn't make any sense at all...

        People gripe because they assume that sole-licensing like this will retard the creation of quality games and maybe stifle some of the innovation that would've come around with more competition (in other words, the games are gonna suck). Correct?

        So what happens if next year's or the year after that's Madden is very very good? Will all those people who were griping based on future assumptions of crappy-games then rescind t

    • Re:Let loose the dogs of war... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by swerk ( 675797 ) on Monday April 11, 2005 @05:32PM (#12205617) Journal
      A company acting in its best interests is different than a company acting against its customers' best interests. But it's not illegal, so it must be ok, right? This is the nasty side of capitalism, when competition is factored out.

      And let's say the next few EA football games are great. That won't exactly be any surprise. It's not like they've been terrible all these years and people buy them anyway. Sports games in general aren't my cup of tea, but Madden and the like are polished games, gripping to those who are into the genre. They have, however, been a bit stale lately, if I understand correctly. How much more innovative or realistic or detailed can a football game get? Video game football has looked almost like the real thing since the Dreamcast. We still use joysticks and buttons, we still pick plays... How much improvement is really going to happen?

      The short answer is, not a lot. EA knows that not much is going to happen in terms of making next year's football game better than this year's. That's exactly the problem -- not that there won't be progress, but that EA _knows_ there won't be progress. With that as a given, they've decided to tie up the market. If there's no innovation to be done, well dammit, we want to be the only ones here! Where the players lose is where that "fact" is broken. Say Sega or 989 Studios or somebody _did_ come up with a genuinely fresh idea for a football game. Say there actually _is_ room for improvement. Well, now that's just too bad. If you're not EA, you can't make a football game and expect it to sell now. Even if your innovation is the greatest thing ever to happen to sports games, you're fooling yourself if you think it will sell without any actual teams attached to it. And then EA's game next year will just hijack your idea anyway. Nobody wins here except EA. Not other developers, but more importantly, not players either.
      • A company acting in its best interests is different than a company acting against its customers' best interests.

        Explain further...I agree that it is not by definition acting against its customers' best interests...but what in the cases where it does? What then?

        For example, look at the tobacco industry. Next to nothing that they do is in their customer's best interests, but they are in the best interests of the industry. (although, this is probably far too extreme of an example)

        In any case, I agreed w
        • I'm actually with you that innovation is probably dead in sports games. I'd LOVE to be wrong, however. And now, nobody's gonna have the chance to prove us wrong besides EA, and they have no incentive whatsoever to do so.

          As for a company's best interests being a different matter than the customer's best interests... You're right, there's a lot of profit to be made by screwing people over. The tobacco industry is a wonderful example. And in both the case of that industry and the case of EA, I don't have
          • I agree with almost everything you said.

            A couple quick notes, however...
            they have no incentive whatsoever to do so.

            I don't really think that's true. There's a couple reasons:
            - maintaining their "goodwill"/brand...if the game sucks, and it's got EA's name on it, then it hurts the company as a whole for the future...
            - Madden and other yearly EA Sports games have been their bread and butter for years...suddenly losing a large amount of expected revenue on a crappy game would hurt
            - development costs for a
  • Apparently EA is showing what happens when you try to undercut them at retail (as in Sega lowering the price of their games to $20).

    In other news EA has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Italy, for the exclusive rights to the likeness of short, fat, mustached, Italian plumbers.
  • people may bash EA, and maybe rightly so, but you have to hand it to them. They cornered the market on 'Street Racing' games with the new Need For Speed Undergrounds, and anything they can't get market control of, they buy exclusive rights to.

    Some very smart businessmen there, shame it means the consumer doesn't always get the best
    • The last good NFS was Hot Pursuit 2. Underground was alright, but Underground 2 was just the same damn thing over again except you then had to spend time driving around to find races.

      An afternoon at a friend's was all I needed to know I could miss it.

  • Possibility... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FalleStar ( 847778 )
    I'm wondering if EA's getting all of these licenses so that if they eventually decide to make their own console they automatically have 100% of the sports gamers out there since they'll be left with no where else to get their fix of Madden and EA's other sports series. I myself wouldn't be influenced by that since I AM one of those people who thinks that there's little innovation in the sports games over the years and are mostly just roster upgrades, but every year Madden is one of the top selling games so
  • with both major football licenses locked up, EA could really turn out an amazing "EA Football" product... one disk that included both NCAA and NFL teams, where you could seemlessly integrate your experience. EA could charge more for this product, and would probably sell boatloads of them... most people I know buy on Madden OR NCAA each year, not both. If they included a High School mode ala Super Play Action Football [classicgaming.com], it really could be the ultimate videogame football experience.

    but... i realize this is

  • The trend up buying up exclusive rights for professional (or college) sports is one of the worst things to happen to the video game industry in years.

    For the purchasers of the licenses -- everything's peachy. However, for the gamers -- it is simply awful.

    Electronic Arts has got the NFL, ESPN and NCAA Football. Take-Two has snagged up MLB.

    Now, can anybody explain to me why any publisher is going to work with any developer to create a sports game featuring fictional teams and players? The fact of the ma

    • "The scary thing is with the exclusive rights, why should a company like EA really attempt to improve the technology and gameplay of their Madden franchise now?"

      I don't care for EA having the exclusive rights to NFL and College football since I happen to prefer Sega/ESPN football. However, EA didn't get these exclusive contracts cheaply. They're going to have to pay for those licenses. In order to do that they must sell a lot of games. If people grow tired of EA's attempts at football, people will find
  • EA's voracious appetite for liscense simply cannot be sated. It's interesting to see how a company controlled by satan and full of soulless CEO's and Designers can swallow up every last ounce of freedom in what was once a gloriously open source industry.
  • I'm not a sports fan, so I hate all sports videogames. They are crap. Period. And keep companies like EA alive.

    However, I have my own opinion on this.

    I don't believe this is THAT bad. Konami, for example, has had success for years with it's Pro Evolution Soccer series, in fact, since the days of the SNES (on that console, it was called International Super Star Soccer)

    Most soccer and sport videogames fan agree that Konami's product is vastly superior. The only thing against it is that Konami has to use fa
  • At a conference the executives at Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft sit around looking at a large video monitor.

    Sony: "What happen?"

    Nintendo: "Somebody set up us the bomb!"

    Microsoft: "We get signal."

    Dr EA: "How are you gentlemen?"

    Dr EA: "All your football are belong to us."

    Sony: "What you say?!"

    Dr EA: "You have no chance to survive make your time."

    Dr EA: "UNLESS, you pay us 100 BILLION DOLLARS!"
    Dr EA puts pinky to corner of mouth.

    Nintendo: "For great justice!"

    Dr EA: "MUAHAHAHAHAHAH

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