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What would you do if EA did for FIFA what they did for Madden?

M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
...what they are TRYING to do for their NBA and MLB games?

What am I talking about? The elimination of competition. Click and read about it, as regards Madden, here, if you haven't heard...

What would you do if EA did the same thing for its FIFA franchise?

I personally don't think Konami would think it as damaging to its Pro Evolution franchise as ESPN Videogames knows it is to theirs, as Konami have gone abut their business without franchises for a while, and can produce, for example, a WE9 with NO licenses and the community would make up for it, for the most part.

But it is interesting to know that this, at least in part, is EA's strategy; when the competition becomes too fierce, the all-American company (and before I get the hate mail, I'm American AND honorably discharged from the USAF) acts totalitarian by making girdiron a monopolized gaming experience.

I have no doubt that if they can do the same in basketball, hockey and baseball, they will.

The Pro Evo model of developing games without RELIANCE on licenses may save their entire franchise in the end...

Your thoughts?
 
R

Rob

Mourinho’s Assistant
It is a bit different really. They the rights to FIFA but because FIFA is a compilation of leagues not like NFL where it is one league it is kind of different.

Besides EA have already done it what they have done to Madden, but we have PES.
 
M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
Another reason EA took this approach in football is directly because SEGA/ESPN cut the market out from underneath them by offering a real competitor to Madden at only $19.99, thus forcing EA to lower their price on Madden, and substantially change their projections for thier stockholders given the huge price drop in Madden.

I do wonder how things might change for EA, at least in the EU, were Konami to undercut EA price-wise and EA were to try to buy up licence exclusivity from all clubs in all leagues in all nations in all confederations of FIFA that EA thinks are worth anything...

I guess my question is: if they did it with the NFL, how likely is it that they do it with the NBA, and with the NHL, and then , god forbid, with world football, or maybe specifically European, South American and MLS properties???

EA is dangerous, in my view, and always has been; this latest move to totally freeze OUT competition may be a one-off, or a harbinger of things to come. Had I said this before EA did what they did to the ESPN NFL franchise, it might have been percieved as realy alarmist, but it's been done, and there's no real reason that EA won't evaluate the totality of the metrics involved with all their franchises, take a look at what makes sense for them, and try that model elsewhere...
 
H

HalfLife

Youth Team
Originally posted by Mel Brennan
Another reason EA took this approach in football is directly because SEGA/ESPN cut the market out from underneath them by offering a real competitor to Madden at only $19.99, thus forcing EA to lower their price on Madden, and substantially change their projections for thier stockholders given the huge price drop in Madden.

I do wonder how things might change for EA, at least in the EU, were Konami to undercut EA price-wise and EA were to try to buy up licence exclusivity from all clubs in all leagues in all nations in all confederations of FIFA that EA thinks are worth anything...

I guess my question is: if they did it with the NFL, how likely is it that they do it with the NBA, and with the NHL, and then , god forbid, with world football, or maybe specifically European, South American and MLS properties???

EA is dangerous, in my view, and always has been; this latest move to totally freeze OUT competition may be a one-off, or a harbinger of things to come. Had I said this before EA did what they did to the ESPN NFL franchise, it might have been percieved as realy alarmist, but it's been done, and there's no real reason that EA won't evaluate the totality of the metrics involved with all their franchises, take a look at what makes sense for them, and try that model elsewhere...
Click to expand...

EA never lowered their price for Madden. It was still $50 this year when it was released.
 
M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
Originally posted by HalfLife
EA never lowered their price for Madden. It was still $50 this year when it was released.
Click to expand...

EA lowered their price for Madden AFTER release in response to a substantial loss of market share due to the quality and price point of ESPN/SEGA's NFL offering. In fact, they dropped it an unheard of $20 to the price point at which you can find it right now on EA.com.

In addition, they were forced to revise estimates and EBITDA quaterly statements based upon this price cut of Madden, which was spurred by the reality of competition, competition they simply bought out of business.

Problem is, there are really only two gaming giants captialized like EA; Konami, with 2.587 billion dollars in sales in 2004, while EA had 2.957 billion in sales during the same period, and Nintendo, which crushes them both ($4.869 billion) in the main because it also sells consoles, etc.

So EA sees a real competitor in Konami, worldwide; if they cna buy up exclusivity in licensing, they will; I do think that Pro Evo is lucky enough to be built on a model not predicated upon licensing, but imagine if PES% didn't even have the names of the players?

As long as the game was fully mod-able, those of us in the community would have very little problem over the long-term, but casual gamers just want it all laid out in front of them, and the loss of, say, the FIFPro (players) license means a big hit in the casual fanbase Konami has been building up mainly on the power of great reviews and word of mouth and endorseents by players like Henry.

And if Pro Evo takes a big ENOUGH hit from this hypothetical scenario, who know what might happen to the franchise?

My thing is, the whole dynamic around Madden/NFL 2K5 spun aorund things other than gameplay and immersion; it spun around EA not wanting to have to battle it out for the hearts and minds of its consumers, and that's pathetic, and that has to be challenged, on every front, including the world football one.

Keep your eyes and ears open.
 
C

CopeCOwBoy

Reserve Team
people are gonna buy madden no matter what price it is, it has the sports game of the year title for like 5 years in a row
 
M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
Originally posted by CopeCOwBoy
people are gonna buy madden no matter what price it is, it has the sports game of the year title for like 5 years in a row
Click to expand...

The way EA tell investors and shareholders they see it is that Madden is one of six properties to do more than five million units in sales worldwide, including FIFA. More importantly, for the first time in EA's history, as their Annual Report also submits, they did more than $1 billion in annual revenue in Europe, much of which comes from FIFA.

If PES threatens that, well, EA is a corporation, and is legally bound to do whatever it can to make $$$ for shareholders. It will employ a parallel strategy to rid itself of PES if it can; it may not be the SAME strategy as the one it employed in the case of ridding itself of ESPN/SEGA, but we need to watch out nonetheless, and be prepared to ogranize to challenge EA if such an attempt IS made.

Hell, Arsenal's Henry would probably fund any effort!!! :)
 
M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
I think that this past year, with the success of NCAA and FIFA, you are wrong about those numbers? Do you have a link?


Well, at least the NBA said no...for now.


NBA Rejects EA Offer
by Daniel Kayser

EA's exclusivity offer to the NBA gets swatted into the stands. Fast breaking details inside...

According to a story on IGN Sports, the National Basketball Association has rejected the initial offer from gaming giant Electronic Arts that would give the company exclusive rights to the publish games containing the NBA license. The deal, which would presumably be the same as the monumental agreement between EA and the NFL signed last week, would give the publisher exclusive rights to the NBA's players, teams and arenas.

While no guarantee that the deal might eventually happen is made clear by the rejection, the NBA does not serve to benefit as dramatically from EA's NBA Live and NBA Street franchises as the NFL might from EA's popular Madden series. With such successful franchises as Sega and Visual Concept's ESPN NBA 2K and Midway's NBA Ballers threatened to be ceased by such an agreement, the NBA could very well lose significant profit by signing an exclusivity deal with Electronic Arts.

Additionally, it is worth noting that EA is reportedly also courting Major League Baseball for an exclusive deal. While a few major publishers may be worried by EA's aggressiveness in the sports market, no clear word on a deal with MLB, or even an offer from EA has surfaced as of yet. EA also announced earlier this week that the company has acquired nearly 20% of another gaming giant, UbiSoft, who is working on an And1 street hoops game that would compete with EA's NBA Street brand.
 
N

Nuno

Starting XI
What would I do? I'd keep playing PES4. The only reason I stopped playing WE7 is because PES4 was released.
 
D

deftonesmx17

Reserve Team
Originally posted by CopeCOwBoy
madden itself sells more than all other ea sport games put together.
Click to expand...

madden is the worst football series ever made, people only buy it because of the name. same goes for most EA games, people say oooo its made by EA it must be good, EA only has one good sports game in my mind.....FIFA, other than that they all suck.

They already tried the NBA and the MLB, MLB said to sum things up "go to hell", the NBA had no comment. EA also already owns the exclusive rights to NASCAR also, I miss the sierra NASCAR's

EA just got scared this year by ESPN NFL 2K5, because it was so much better than madden, well all I can hope for is ESPN NCAA 2K6, i am sure they will do it since they can not make a full "real" NFL game
 
B

Brett

Youth Team
Yes...

Originally posted by deftonesmx17
madden is the worst football series ever made, people only buy it because of the name. same goes for most EA games, people say oooo its made by EA it must be good, EA only has one good sports game in my mind.....FIFA, other than that they all suck.

They already tried the NBA and the MLB, MLB said to sum things up "go to hell", the NBA had no comment. EA also already owns the exclusive rights to NASCAR also, I miss the sierra NASCAR's

EA just got scared this year by ESPN NFL 2K5, because it was so much better than madden, well all I can hope for is ESPN NCAA 2K6, i am sure they will do it since they can not make a full "real" NFL game
Click to expand...

Hell yes. I am prepared to buy ESPN NCAA and give up on my true passion, the NFL. But I'll do it because I hate a monopoly and sour loosers like EA. They can't handle competition so they kill it. What a great freaking example:f***:
 
B

Brett

Youth Team
Good Job...

Originally posted by Mel Brennan
What am I talking about? The elimination of competition. Click and read about it, as regards Madden, here, if you haven't heard...

What would you do if EA did the same thing for its FIFA franchise?

I personally don't think Konami would think it as damaging to its Pro Evolution franchise as ESPN Videogames knows it is to theirs, as Konami have gone abut their business without franchises for a while, and can produce, for example, a WE9 with NO licenses and the community would make up for it, for the most part.

But it is interesting to know that this, at least in part, is EA's strategy; when the competition becomes too fierce, the all-American company (and before I get the hate mail, I'm American AND honorably discharged from the USAF) acts totalitarian by making girdiron a monopolized gaming experience.

I have no doubt that if they can do the same in basketball, hockey and baseball, they will.

The Pro Evo model of developing games without RELIANCE on licenses may save their entire franchise in the end...

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
*********************************************
This is the best thread/post I've read... ever...
You hit it right on the money!!!!!

I could not have said it better in a million years... thank you for sharing the truth about EA with all of us.
I use to be the biggest EA fan until I found out what they are doing to their competitors.
And don’t be fooled, the real losers here are us.
******************************************
Thanks you EA for :hump: all of us gamers!!!!!!!!!!!!
******************************************
P.S.: We should boycott EA. I loved ESPN 2k5. Hopefully they don't give up! They have tomake ESPN NCAA 2k6.
 
R

Rocky

Forza Suarez! (ps brotha can you spare a dime?)
they definately wont do it with PES. with players like Totti and Henry and hell even Eddie Pope backing it up, Ea dont have the balls to buy us out. plus konami has something Ea doesnt, the official licenses to the dutch and Italian leagues:) now you must be saying, but PSV, ajax and juventus are there fully licensed. your right, but ea could only get seperate licenses for seperate teams. Teams like Bologna and Udinese dont have their official kits. Thats why they call the "Italian First Division" instead of the serie A. just thought id remind you;)
 
W

windernw

Club Supporter
I have no doubt that ea is trying to buy out their competition...its total crap too....madden is a very average game that does well because of history and advertising. I basically like FIFA but every year it seems like it is becoming more like Madden i.e. crap. You can tell in interviews and such with the producers of the games that they dont really know what they're doing and/or they dont care if the game is good. If ea keep getting the exclusive deals then the sports video game market is going to become worthless and i guess we will all have to play shoot em ups and racing games.
 
R

Rport03

Youth Team
Well Madden has been a great game, gets better and better every years IMO with new features and graphics etc.. and what EA is doing isnt really a good direction for us consumers and possibly for themselves. I buy EA products and enjoy them for what they are, games. Im no super gamer where i buy every single video game that comes to market but I don't belive EA could and or will do to Fifa like they did to Madden and the NFL, because thats only one league. If they wanted to do the same with Fifa yea that have alot of leagues now but if they truly want to be that way they'll have to get more international teams and leagues and EVERYTHING has a price. Instead of buying out everything why wont you just come out with good games, more and better features, better graphics, better gameplay (AI etc..). Yes people want official products but thery also want great games and tougher opponents. Madden has been turning out great and I hope Fifa does too but dont buy out everything. i guess we'll all just have to wait and see.
 
M

Mel Brennan

Youth Team
Its good for the sports gaming industry that entities like the NBA have said "no" to EA's attempts to seal off the market from competition.

I do think that if EA can make all major leagues/club/competitions exclusive, they will. I also think that that will hurt Codemasters right now more than it would Konami; even if EA locked up FIFPro, for example, as well (leaving Konami nothing by which to make the game "authentic"), Konami would - hopefully - counter with editing flexibility, i.e., build in far more editing capability, on the console as well as the PC, then is currently there (which is already alot).
 
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