EA being sued over NFL license

[Andrew]

EA Being Sued Over NFL Exclusivity

In an article posted by GamePolitics.com, it appears that the law firm handling the Pecover vs. EA suit is looking for those who have been affected by EA's NFL exclusivity deal to join the class action suit.

Lead attorney Steve Berman gave this quote about the situation:

There is nothing wrong with good, strong competition in a free market, but we believe EA rigged the game to take advantage of consumers.

EA knows that the demand for these games is based on how realistically the players and teams are portrayed. When EA signed into exclusive agreements it knowingly killed the only competing game of comparable quality, [Take-Two's] NFL 2K5.

I still don't see how they have a hope. As much as it may suck for gamers, the NFL has the rights to offer an exclusive license and EA won the bid. If anyone's at fault here, isn't it the NFL for inviting bids on an exclusive license?

[fumanchu]

yeah...now gamers have no choice....

[shadowgrin]

No, gamers always had a choice.
They can cough up the dough to buy Madden or not buy the game at all if they feel the game is a piece of shite.

[Andrew]

yeah...now gamers have no choice....

But the point is, EA didn't do anything wrong by outbidding Take Two for the license; either way there'd be no competition. Given how much money their Madden franchise has made them, it was smart business to try and keep that license once the NFL made their decision and if Take Two had succeeded then it would've been a good business move on their part too.

[fumanchu]

is Take 2's version better than Madden? coz i have only tried Madden...

[Patr1ck]

Many people say that NFL 2K5 was better than Madden in most aspects.

There is no chance at winning this suit. Video games are recreational. If a retarded judge somehow rules against EA, let's sue them for a PC version of Live.

[Andrew]

What can really be achieved by the suit? It's not like they can fairly be awarded nothing; the exclusive agreement doesn't cost them any money (if anything it saves them money if they refuse to buy Madden) and as you said, if they can claim anguish or whatever then we might as well file suit on behalf of disgruntled PC users. As for changing the situation, I doubt any court would have the power to dissolve a perfectly legal business arrangement because the consumer doesn't like it.

I understand their sentiment, but the lawsuit seems like a waste of time and money.

[Patr1ck]

It's like suing Microsoft because it's such a mainstream platform that you are "forced" to buy it to play the games or use the applications that don't have an Apple counterpart.

[Andrew]

Exactly. I wonder if the lawsuit would still be going ahead if Take Two had won the bid a few years back.