[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] EA signs an exclusive deal with ESPN need more be said?

Edit: removed the bad link. stupid firefox not liking ctrl-c half the time for some stupid reason

So that's why I saw EA's logo on ESPN the other night.

Great news if you ask me.

Why is it good or bad news?

Bad, because now Sega are basically out of the sports games market for good, meaning that EA ar now the only company making sports games.

So, if you like sports games, you have no choice but to buy EA product.

EA need to be stopped

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01...s_6116473.html

Electronic Arts, ESPN hook up in exclusive 15-year deal
ESPN brand and programming to surface in EA sports titles on all platforms; deal is second blow to Sega Sports and Visual Concepts.
Electronic Arts broke the calm of a national holiday today by announcing a licensing deal of epic proportions. For the next fifteen years, EA will be the sole licensee of the ESPN brand in the area of sports games, which will include console, handheld, PC, and wireless games.

Games with leverage the ESPN brand will make their way to retail sometime during calendar year 2006, "upon the conclusion of ESPN’s existing video game licensing commitments."

The news is the second blow to current license-holder Sega (and its Visual Concepts development studio). It recently lost the right to publish sports games using the NFL license when EA scooped that license up. Now, it loses the right to the ESPN brand as well.

In a statement released just minutes ago, the world's largest game publisher said, "The relationship will include established EA SPORTS franchises--which will be enhanced by ESPN telecast, print and online content--as well as new sports games to be published by EA based on ESPN media properties."

The agreement is for fifteen years "with an option to terminate after ten years under certain conditions," the statement said. The agreement gives the publisher "exclusive first rights" to all ESPN content for simulation sports games.

Yeah....that is shitty. The rich jsut keep getting richer.

well its the "Strongest Survive" theme that the video game industry is going through right now. this should be no surprise to anyone since we will end up with maybe 2-4 major publishers and then all the tiny indie publishers. the merging and buyouts will happen this year and next especially since the next-gen consoles are coming and the amount of money to make one of these games maybe double or triple what this generation of games cost.

EA is a strong company (and for being such a good Ea spokesman, if there is any EA executive out there that would like to send me a check, my address is 390.....) and if no one else wants to put its money where its mouth is then screw them. you can't blame EA for trying to get bigger and stronger.

EA IS WATCHING YOU...

Why the hell do you have porn posted up, iMag? Put up a NSFW warning.

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FFS...I love ESPN NFL...so much better than Madden...and now not only do they lose the NFL license, but the ESPN branding too...fucking EA!

Ok lets get one thing straight, you cannot monopolise a trade name such as 'NFL', you can only monopolize a 'genre' such as American Football. SEGA can quite easily go out and get the NCAA license to battle EA with a college game.

don't worry now sega will get the madden license, so you can still say espn is better than madden [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Here's my guess:

EA have the NFL license to NFL management.

Madden becomes: EA ESPN Football or something of that nature

'John Madden' then gets moved to a new NFL management series in a similar manner to TOTAL CLUB FOOTBALL (soccer), where you can save your NFL management progress and load it in the game where you can play and win/lose.

i don't understand what's going on. what does a TV channel have to do with making games?

and if Sega can no longer make recycled football games, i guess it's time to put creative minds together and design new sports games. I haven't played a EA football game since the Genesis.

Elysium: It gives the game a TV feel, but with EA already having Al Michaels and John Madden (from ESPN) they can now slot it all into place, with it having the TV look, the TV broadcasters (although shit and recycled commentary), but it should give it more visual appeal. It also now gives all the EA games a common 'demoninator' in which players can instantly recognise the product if they have never played video games before ¬_¬

You can't blame EA for trying to get bigger and stronger?

Hell yes, you can. EA should get bitch slapped for monopolizing the sports video game market, the same way MS is with their applications. There are some studios out there that do nothing but sports games, such as the ESPN titles. What happens to them now?

What happens if EA rolls around and trys to copyright the entire FPS genre? That's what it's getting to...
They already bought Criterion (aka, Renderware), so EA knows about EVERY single game being made, that uses Renderware. They then have the option of saying 'oh yea, that's a good game there. Lets make a better one to beat it'. EA is getting too large and powerfull for it's own good.

point well taken about knowledge of the games that will use renderware....but if you don't want ea to know what you are making then create your own engine or licence the many game engines that are available out there.

if you were the ceo or coo or even a stock holder of ea wouldn't you want to make as many exclusive deals that you can? like microsoft getting dead or alive and ninja gaiden...or sony for getting a big lead on gta exclussives...or nintendo getting resident evil? its all about exclussives man and getting that edge.

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Lets make a better one to beat it

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I am all for making better games :P
Sadly EA never did a 'better game' all they usually do is to put their marketing devision behind a game to push it or buy out the company and make the game crap.

But to be honest, I couldn't care less about EA dominating the sports-game market, because these games are all crap anyways (and if I ever wanted to do a sport like AmericanFootball I will do it mayself with a few friends... *SHOCK* outside, in real-life *SHOCK* ).

It's not worth the energy to bitch about it. Frankly, How many of you folks out there play Console sports titles? I don't... I hate sports. Dull as dishwater and has no bearing on the "price of rice" as they say. Irrelevant. I hope EA cotinues to succeed. because with their success, the legitimacy of gaming in general is validated. So they monopolize sports? BFD! In any case, this is the consolidation and belt tightening phase before the next console launch for Christmas 2006.

the thing that make me believe that EA is making a mistake is not the monopolizing of small sectors of world wide sports (for instance EA could never monopolize soccer, only certain leagues), but this article from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4180453.stm
Linking up with celebrities, and making everything some sort of a licensed tie- in, will kill the gaming market, with poor quality games in service to stardom, and the dramatic downturn in the popularity of movie stars since the election, as evidenced by abysman ratings for the Golden Globes last night, and the Tsunami Benefit concert (even though the concert was carried by a HUGE variety of broadcast and cable companies). sure, EZ can try to become, and maybe surpass Disney, but by trying to become Disney, they will make the same mistakes that have crippled Disney and sent it into it's slow Titanic sink.

Scott

My problem with this is not in the fact that they are monopolizing really, but that their actions are preventing other studios from creating the content they've always made. In some case, they might even have to shut down. I disagree with that strategy completely. The industry can't grow if you're killing off small studios....

that blows, i had to return my copy of madden 2005 because i couldnt deal with the fact that you couldnt customize your controller config, you are forced to play with the defaults which for me really bytes

Can't wait till EA gets an exclusive deal with life itself [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

*From Gamasutra*

Rumors of a potential takeover bid for Ubisoft by Electronic Arts have abounded since EA's purchase of 20% of Ubisoft stock, with some unlikely parties allegedly stepping in to forestall a possible merger.

*end*

Anybody see this one? I don't think they'll stop until they rule the world.

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FFS...I love ESPN NFL...so much better than Madden...and now not only do they lose the NFL license, but the ESPN branding too...fucking EA!

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Ditto [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]. I've been a fan of the series since the turn of the century, when I bought my copy of NFL2K. I don't care about loosing the ESPN branding, since I didn't think it added anything to the game anyway, but I will miss my NFL2K_ games since only EA can make NFL games now [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

Hey, why doesn't EA just by exclusive rights to videogames in general? So no videogame could be released without the initials "EA" on the box. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

hmmm...well the madden thing doesn't bother me,being from the Uk and all.

But what does bother me does this mean I could loose my beloved pro Evolution soccer series before long?

just thought id ask,its a 10x better game than Fifa,more polished,much better game play,better flow....only thing it hasn't got is the presentation of fifa which is acturally gnerally pretty good.....

also judging by the likes of my friends and me I have met so many people that have played fifa then pro evo and not even looked back at fifa....the fact that Konami is raking in the cash would surily be a reason for EA to "subdue" them....despite Konami not having an official football licence.

John

Well, the president of UbiSoft has stated that he has 'plans' for the EA situation. He said that he'll stop at nothing to prevent EA from getting their paws on Ubisoft.