New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

It takes 2 people to sign a deal. Both of them bear responsibility. You want to paint EA as some victim who had no choice whatever. It'd be one thing if this was a single occurance and the NFL was the only exclusive deal they had. But they also have signed exclusive deals with NASCAR, AFL, ESPN and NCAA football. Guess who the one common denominator is.

For ESPN, 2k's contract with them had expired and 2k declined to extend the deal. My understanding is that 2k did not even bid on the AFL or NCAA deals. However in the NCAA's case I am not 100% sure.

[poopoop]

No my point is it's "laughable" to act like EA doesn't have any (0%) responsibility. I don't care what Direct TV does, I'm talking about EA and a pattern of behavior they've established over the years. You choose to ignore it, fine whatever.

They're not doing it with the goal to screw over consumers, that's ridiculous. Does it happen as a result? Well you could argue it does, but that's not their goal.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

No my point is it's "laughable" to act like EA doesn't have any (0%) responsibility. I don't care what Direct TV does, I'm talking about EA and a pattern of behavior they've established over the years. You choose to ignore it, fine whatever. They're not doing it with the goal to screw over consumers, that's ridiculous. Does it happen as a result? Well you could argue it does, but that's not their goal.

If those entities put it up for sale what exactly do you expect EA to do? The NFL is to blame for this mess. EA is just a convenient and easy target.

[poopoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

For ESPN, 2k's contract with them had expired and 2k declined to extend the deal. My understanding is that 2k did not even bid on the AFL or NCAA deals. However in the NCAA's case I am not 100% sure.

That's fine, I'm not claiming otherwise. And of course 2k never bid on the AFL license, I'm pretty sure they never even made an AFL game. All I'm saying is EA has exclusive deals with multiple people and at some point a pattern develops.

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

If those entities put it up for sale what exactly do you expect EA to do? The NFL is to blame for this mess. EA is just a convenient and easy target.

Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

That's fine, I'm not claiming otherwise. And of course 2k never bid on the AFL license, I'm pretty sure they never even made an AFL game. All I'm saying is EA has exclusive deals with multiple people and at some point a pattern develops. Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

So what is your point? That EA buys licenses that are for sale? Excluding MLB of course. Do you criticize 2k for doing the same thing?

[poopoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

So what is your point? That EA buys licenses that are for sale? Excluding MLB of course. Do you criticize 2k for doing the same thing?

If it wasn't for me absolutely hating baseball then yeah I'd have beef with 2k buying up the MLB deal. I'm not a fan of exclusive deals at all, I'd criticize any any company or league that participates.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

If it wasn't for me absolutely hating baseball then yeah I'd have beef with 2k buying up the MLB deal. I'm not a fan of exclusive deals at all, I'd criticize any any company or league that participates.

Who is a fan of license exclusivity? I have a hard time blaming a company in todays dog eat dog business world for buying them. If they didn't someone else would.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

Both of them are to blame. Neither is completely innocent.

Nope, only those who sell their licenses as exclusives, that'd be the NFL and NCAA, can be blamed for the lack of competition. As I said, if EA had passed then someone else simply would have bought the exclusive. The point is someone was going to be the exclusive provider once the NCAA/NFL decided that was the route they were going to go.

The entire argument of EA is 50% or whatever to blame is laughable!!!! Let me give you an analogy to what you're saying:

Let's say your parents let you live in a house they owned for several years. One day they needed money from the house and decided to sell it to a random guy off the street named Joe Smith. Joe shows up and evicts you and moves into the house.

Would you direct your anger to Joe Smith over having no place to live?? Is it Joe Smiths fault you are now homeless? Wouldn't it make sense to realize if Joe Smith had never been born that you'd still be homeless because instead of Joe Smith buying the house it'd just have been another random person?? Would anyone in the world think you to be sane if you stalked, harrassed and threatened Joe Smith? Wouldn't it make much more sense to fault your parents for selling your house out from under you without warning???

This is exactly the point why EA shares ZERO culpability here and should have ZERO anger directed at them for the exclusive agreements and this whole lack of competition thing. EA simply made a smart business decision that had to be made, passing on the agreement would have made no sense. If not EA it'd have been 2K sports, if not 2K sports it'd have been (fill in company here).

If you want to be mad at EA for how their football game plays, the features that are missing you want, etc. that's fine. But being mad at EA, or laying any sort of blame at their door, for the exclusive deal(s) is just completely and wildly misguided and utterly senseless.