December 14, 200421 yr UPDATE 1-EA signs exclusive football license deal Mon Dec 13, 2004 04:56 PM ET LOS ANGELES, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday said it has signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League and the league's players, giving EA sole rights to put NFL players, stadiums and teams in its games. Terms of the five-year deal were not disclosed. The deal strikes a blow for EA in its ongoing sports battle with Sega Sammy Holdings (6460.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Sega and Take-Two's "ESPN" line of sports video games, with their strong reviews and discount $20 pricing, ate into EA's market share this year, forcing EA to cut prices on its sports games. EA's "Madden NFL" football games is one of the company's cornerstones, with more than 42 million copies sold over the last 15 years. I wonder if NHL and NBA will follow suit. If you can't beat the $20 price tag, make sure they can't make 'em.
December 14, 200421 yr Great, so now EA can charge however much they want and put a sub-standard product on the market. This is complete gheyness. I hope MLB, NHL, NBA, and NCAA don't follow suit.
December 14, 200421 yr Author Now that I thought about it, this might be the NFL's way at getting ESPN back for airing Playmakers despite the wishes of the NFL.
December 14, 200421 yr Author Monday, December 13, 2004 By Darren Rovell ESPN.com Electronic Arts, the leading maker of sports video games, signed an exclusive five-year contract with the National Football League and the NFL Players Association, deals that will give the company sole possession of the licensed football video game business. The partnership, which will commence with the publishing of Electronic Arts' Madden game next August, eliminates the competitive battle EA endured this year with ESPN's NFL 2K5 game, a joint venture between Sega and Take-Two Interactive. Without the use of team and player names, generic games have struggled for survival in the current environment. Before this year, EA's Madden franchise -- which the company has sold more than 40 million copies of since its debut in 1989 -- previously dominated the football game marketplace. Bit players, including Midway, 989 Sports and Microsoft, dropped out of the licensed football game business this year. But the Madden 2005 game was seriously challenged by NFL 2K5, thanks to good reviews and a pricing war. NFL 2K5 was available in stores in August for $19.95. For three months, the Madden game was priced at $49.95, until the company finally relented on Nov. 8 and lowered it by $20. "We considered a whole variety of factors in making this decision," said Gene Goldberg, the NFL's vice president of consumer products. "We chose EA based on game quality, marketing ability and track record." As part of the deal, EA will have access to NFL resources, including video, audio and music scores from NFL Films. The partnership pertains to every aspect of gaming, including content for hand-held games, personal computers and cell phones. Goldberg said he's not concerned that the monopoly on the business will cause EA to relax the year-to-year innovations that have been pushed by recent competition. Though financial terms of the deal are not known, Goldberg said there is "a lot of self-imposed pressure to improve the product to make it stand out in a robust and diverse marketplace." Sports video games accounted for more than 20 percent ($1.2 billion) of the $5.8 billion video game market last year, according to the NPD Group, a market tracking firm. EA spokesman Trudy Muller said that the deal is not a financial risk for the company. "We believe this is a good investment for us, as well as the league and the players," Muller said. "We know we have a responsibility to our fans to continue to make the best game. We have plenty of competition with other games in the marketplace." Electronic Arts also has exclusive deals with NASCAR, FIFA and the PGA Tour. "This exclusive relationship will maximize the value of NFL players through EA's continued commitment to bring fans closer to the game," said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFLPA and chairman of Players Inc., the organization's licensing body. In a statement, Take-Two spokesman Ed Nebb disagreed. "We believe that the decisions of the National Football League and Players Inc. to grant an exclusive license for videogames do a tremendous disservice to the consumers and sports fans whose funds ultimately support the NFL, by limiting their choices, curbing creativity and almost certainly leading to higher game prices," Nebb said. The game was "not a material contributor" to the company's profitability, "nor was it expected to be," Nebb said. An ESPN spokesman said the company will evaluate the impact that the deal has on the company's licensing business. The EA deal continues an unprecedented business year for the league. In January, the NFL signed Visa to a six-year deal worth $400 million. In February, Gatorade ponied up $500 million for the right to be called the official sports drink of the league for the next eight years. And PepsiCo signed a contract worth $560 million to use the NFL shield on its Pepsi, Frito Lay and Tropicana products in March. Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at Darren.rovell@espn3.com
December 14, 200421 yr This really sucks. I've never been a fan of EA's madden games. I would always pick up Sega's football game and EA's college football game. Seeing stuff like this makes me not want to buy EA stuff ever again.
December 14, 200421 yr Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff.
December 14, 200421 yr Author Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Who's going to play an NFL game where all the players are named QB #10 and they play teams like the Miami Atoms?
December 14, 200421 yr Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Yeah, look at the huge sales Tecmobowl still makes. :plain
December 14, 200421 yr Stuff like this always sucks I only really play College Hoops as far as ESPN games are concerned, so I just hope none of this happens there.
December 14, 200421 yr I own the whole line besides the Hockey game. It is alot better graphically and playign wise. EA can lick my balls.
December 14, 200421 yr Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Who's going to play an NFL game where all the players are named QB #10 and they play teams like the Miami Atoms? 634899[/snapback] OMG then they could lower the price to $5!
December 15, 200421 yr Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Who's going to play an NFL game where all the players are named QB #10 and they play teams like the Miami Atoms? 634899[/snapback] Early Madden games were exactly like that.
December 15, 200421 yr Author Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Who's going to play an NFL game where all the players are named QB #10 and they play teams like the Miami Atoms? 634899[/snapback] Early Madden games were exactly like that. 635540[/snapback] But that was before games had that sort of stuff. I know I get po'ed with the NCAA games because none of the guys have names.
December 17, 200421 yr Sega/ESPN can still make football games just with different names, logos, and other stuff. 634897[/snapback] Yeah, look at the huge sales Tecmobowl still makes. :plain 634922[/snapback] You can't deny the early Nintendo Tecmo Bowl ruled all though... :mischief
December 17, 200421 yr As long as this sticks to football and possibly baseball, then I won't really mind. Madden has been superior to the other football games the past few years. If Sega felt that their football games were an equal product, then they wouldn't have been starting their prices at $19.99 for a brand-new game. They knew that the only way for them to be able to compete with Madden would be to drop the price on their product down to almost nothing.
December 17, 200421 yr Author As long as this sticks to football and possibly baseball, then I won't really mind. Madden has been superior to the other football games the past few years. If Sega felt that their football games were an equal product, then they wouldn't have been starting their prices at $19.99 for a brand-new game. They knew that the only way for them to be able to compete with Madden would be to drop the price on their product down to almost nothing. 637085[/snapback] Even if they had a better game people would not have bought it. People stick with what they know and if the price was the same as Madden people for the most part would just stick with Madden. So to get people to try their game and see what its all about tey have to attract them somehow, like a low sticker price.
December 17, 200421 yr As long as this sticks to football and possibly baseball, then I won't really mind. Madden has been superior to the other football games the past few years. If Sega felt that their football games were an equal product, then they wouldn't have been starting their prices at $19.99 for a brand-new game. They knew that the only way for them to be able to compete with Madden would be to drop the price on their product down to almost nothing. 637085[/snapback] Sega didn't do that because their product was inferior. Sega did that because for years people have been blindly buying Madden because of the name without trying anything else, they felt at this price that people would be enticed to buy the Sega games and give them a shot. The strategy paid off for a while because for the first time ever ESPN NFL 2k5 outsold Madden on the Xbox. Additionally, if you notice, IGN picked ESPN NFL Football over Madden as the best Xbox sports game of the year. I don't know if they also picked it for PS2 because I didn't read that article.
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