For years, gamers have loathed EA Sports’ exclusivity agreements for football videogames. Currently, EA is the only publisher that can make a game that uses the NFL, NCAA, or AFL (arena football) licenses. They’re going to keep that stranglehold on the industry for a while, too; earlier this year, they extended their exclusivity agreement with the NFL through 2012.
Well, it looks like two fans of football videogames decided to to try and put an end to EA’s monopoly by having the District Court for the Northern District of California lay down the law. Jeffrey Lawrence of California and Geoffrey Pecover of Washington, D.C., have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of everyone who has purchased an EA football videogame since August 2005 (e.g., Madden NFL 06, NCAA Football 06, and newer games), and they want blood.
The suit (the full text of which can be viewed in PDF form here) alleges nine counts of “anticompetitive conduct,” including, but not limited to, this: “By signing the exclusive agreement with the NFL, Electronic Arts immediately killed off Take-Two's NFL 2K5 software, the only competing interactive football product of comparable quality to its Madden NFL franchise.” Can’t argue there, can you? Of course, as I noted in my c-blog treatise on exclusivity agreements a while back, Peter Moore explained that the NFL offered the exclusivity deal in the first place, and EA won the bidding war. Bully for capitalism, eh?
As for damages, the lawsuit lists nine ways for EA to make things right, such as: “Equitable relief in the form of restitution and/or disgorgement of all unlawful or illegal profits received by Defendant as a result of the anticompetitive conduct alleged in herein [sic].” Yeesh. Good luck with that, gentlemen. Perhaps some of Destructoid’s resident law experts (HarassmentPanda, I’m looking at you) can peruse the PDF linked above and let us know if the plaintiffs actually have a case here. Pastapadre.com didn’t seem to think so, but at the very least, I’m on the side of the little guys here. What about you?
[Via Pastapadre.com -- thanks, coonskin05!]
Contest:
6:20 PM on 06.11.2008
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Since playing a game that is officially licensed by the NFL is entirely optional, it's not like it's hurting anyone. I'm against the sports exclusivity agreements that have been made as of late, but I'm not sure if there is anything illegal about the agreements that have been made between the game publishers and the NFL, NCAA, MLB and so on.
For too long sports games have gotten away with "same old shit, new roster" games that are lazily made and yet still sell millions to the sheep gamers of the world who think that playing as their favorite sport star is what makes a game fun. What this leads to is just roster updates and no real innovation in the genre.
However, with the roster's inability to be updated as the roster is now exclusive to EA, anyone with the idea to make a football game needs to have an idea of a cool feature to bring in the crowd who play games because games are fun, and not because they want to pretend they are Brett Favre. I dare say, by not having competition, EA is forcing other companies to innovate which can lead to games that, at the very least, I'll actually want to purchase, as opposed to the same rigmarole roster update BS that has plagued consoles for years.
But hey, that's just my devil's advocate wanting another Baseball 2020 to come along. :)
That in itself is pretty suspect to the anticompetitive laws of CA.
Its not going to be anything major like a monopoly or something basically it looks like the suit just suggests that EA is purposely forcing opponents out of the race.
It's taken a while for EA's competition to respond, but I believe that Backbreaker, Tecmo Super Bowl, and All-Pro Football are perfectly acceptable responses to EA's "get yer new roster here!" style.
@Samit Sarkar: I agree with you 100%, which is why I say what I want. The fact that the sports gaming public is only interested in actual licensed sports games makes me weep (considering my belief that games should be played because they are fun to play) but is just a fact of life to get over. My only real reason for concern is the competition's inability to bring us another Monster League Football, or at least something similar.
And for the record, NFL Blitz could have not been NFL licensed and I still would have enjoyed it. It's just enough on the side of "unreal" that it was a great play... at least until the latest additions to the series that just have fun with cursing and bouncing boobs.
Thanks for clearing that up man.
I'm the type of sports fan where if I'm looking for a realistic-ish sports game like Madden I want the game to have the actual players in it. When I own someone with Urlacher I want to see his name on his jersey and hear the announcer say his name, and not "boy #54 sure hit him hard there." And as it stands now all you can get for the Madden type of football game with the actual players names in it is to actually get Madden. There isn't another choice, and I don't like it one bit.
While other types of football games are fun, like Blitz, most sports gamers I know prefer the real type sporting games with the actual players' names. Say what you like, but I remember back in the day when Michael Jordan wasn't in my favorite basketball game one year and some other look alike was, with a different name, I was pretty bumbed. I kept thinking to myself "you mean I can't play as Michael Jordan? I could last year." Being a Chicago native I probably took it harder than some. Turns out I think he had his own game that year.
I have a feeling that no matter how innovative a sports game is, if it doesn't have the actual players names in it, I don't give it a second thought. Might sound sad but that's how I feel.
In construction you don't lose a contract and then get bitchy because someone competed better than you could.
People think they have a case for whatever the hell the want to get out of it. They're idiots. It's too bad it's probably class-action and it won't just drain their finances, because they deserve to have their money taken like the suckers they are.
Then after they made those bids, they produce under par work. However since they purchase all available contracts around you, you have to close down your construction business.
The two guys are customers in this ordeal after realizing that EA can't construct shit worth anything, they realize there is no one else to turn to because EA killed the competition.
I hate sports games because I hate having to control the entire team. I want to control one player. They need to make an first-person football game where you control one player. I think that would actually be somewhat intense. Maybe you can get a feel when you're at that players POV.
See MLB 08: The Show