9th Circuit Upholds NCAA Can't Restrict Athletes

[Junior Moe]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

I don't have a lot of knowledge on it, but I thought I had read that the license got more expensive near the end and ended up not being worth it anymore for basketball. If it was reasonably priced, they'd return, well, if college games return.

I thought that was the case with MLB 2K. 2K signed an exclusive 3rd party deal to freeze out EA. MLB 2K wasn't very good though and MLB The Show destroyed it. On top of the game not selling well they had that expensive license on top of it. Weren't they forced to release MLB 2K13 or something? I was under the impression that CH2K ended because of low sales and MM bowed out a few year later for the same reason. I could be wrong, though...

[BJNT]

Quote: Originally Posted by GLO

Fair point. To counter, then let them take the money they get paid from their image and use that to pay for their education. (just like the rest of us that had to work full or part time jobs to get through college). I understand it's a fine line argument either way, the thing that bothers me is how often this discussion is framed in the (false) context of these student-athletes not having any money for food or other things. I am also an educator and have known plenty of student athletes that are doing more than fine with all the "extras" that come along with being a high profile college athlete. As it stands right now the education is "payment" in the form of a scholarship. If they want to make the millions that a coach or college executive make then let them work hard and earn it over time just like those adults did. There is nowhere in the work force where 18, 19 or 20 year old kids can come into an organization and demand to be paid as much as the CEO or top execs, no matter how "famous" they are. (other than Hollywood and I doubt anyone would argue that Hollywood is the structure we should follow for work-force compensation?) I'm fine with the change to pay the players, but if that happens then remove the scholarships and give them to kids who can't make millions from endorsement deals. If an 18 year old kid gets a 2 million dollar contract from Nike, the $25k tuition shouldn't be a problem. By arguing that they need to get paid and also keep the scholarships you are de-value-ing the education that the scholarship is paying for. There's no way around it. Truth is there probably isn't a neat and clean answer for this....

Then you might as well get rid of academic and band scholarships as well. Those kids are getting a free education and won't have pay back student loans just like the kids on athletic scholarships. The only difference is the kid on an academic scholarship can design an app for google play, charge for downloading it, keep the profits and still keep their academic scholarship. The kid on a band scholarship can play a gig at a jazz club, get paid for it and keep their scholarship. Are we going to penalize them too. Because they could clearly pay for their own education as well in those circumstances.

[BizDevConglomerate]

Wanted to write an arena blog, but I decided to follow with what you guys are discussing.

I truly beleive we, the consumers must stop making excuses for.the game developers and companies. We can say what if all we want, but how many followers does 2k have on their twitter account? Of those how many are begging for a professional football ga me or follow up to their college basketball series, if not just reopen the servers or remaster older games. BEGGING.

That alone should have lead Virtual Concepts to consider and communicate with it's supporters. It seems as.if they don't understand their fan base, that they are very loyal. The basketball series is amazing. Not that it is flawless, but because of the organic apeal they have built into their brand through game play and modes. They customization as well is another area they shine which makes me shake my head as to why wouldn't they take the renegade approach to games they have no license for. We areuch further removed from APF, and the uncertainty of the game, however an approach they could have built on was the envolvment of the fans.

Their greatest games have lived on by dedicated fans and innovative minds who want to play games, and appreciate the authentic approach 2k brings. You mean to tell me, they have not considered hiring one of the modding stars to help fill the gap left in simulation style gaming, and a marketing campaign through their followers?

They are nothing more than a poor man's EA Sports. Who want total control, and fail to truly consider it's consumer base. The hiring of The Czar, and OG is promising, however they are two of thousands. Who have thousands of fans, followers and they also have legitimacy in their knowledge of gaming. We have to move on from these excuses and demand better development from these companies.

They haven't come out and confessed to using early sales profits to fund further development of their titles, but it's clear that something is going on or not clear; games are released with several patches needed to make the game playable according to advertising and promotions, so.why not fully disclose your inability to release a fully functioning game?

I believe if they can patch games during the year, which augment game play and functions, they can also release a unlicensed game, and patch it during the year to support functions, while offering a playable title, generic names of players and teams, but fully customizable. Patches can be made to remaster older titles as well for a re-release.

It's not as important today to have a license when you upload an HD Logo, of either the real team, or your own team. Faces can be edited to look like the real players, or have their faces covered completely. It's the game we're concerned with, not the face. EA claims if it's in the game, it's in the game, however there is very little that they have in the game that mimics the actual product.

So in closing, I'd appeal to the community of gamers that we stop with making it easy for these companies no matter their importance to.our gaming demands. This reliance on an undeserving producer, this can deter other developers from entering the market, because of the lack of optimism for non licensed gaming.

[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by BizDevConglomerate

I truly beleive we, the consumers must stop making excuses for.the game developers and companies. We can say what if all we want, but how many followers does 2k have on their twitter account? Of those how many are begging for a professional football game or follow up to their college basketball series, if not just reopen the servers or remaster older games. BEGGING.

I don't see how we are making excuses for these companies...2K made a professional football game called All-Pro Football, it did NOT sell well. And I can't blame any company not wanting to touch college sports with 100K foot pole because there is a huge chance it will lose money with this case as precedence for likeness issues. The college basketball game as has been discussed was stopped because it was LOSING money. Either because of the license being too expensive or people not buying the game.

[BizDevConglomerate]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

I don't see how we are making excuses for these companies...2K made a professional football game called All-Pro Football, it did NOT sell well. And I can't blame any company not wanting to touch college sports with 100K foot pole because there is a huge chance it will lose money with this case as precedence for likeness issues. The college basketball game as has been discussed was stopped because it was LOSING money. Either because of the license being too expensive or people not buying the game.

As I stated, that's was then. Look at the amount of people starving for these games. At that moment it was taken for granted to have those titles. Even the MLB game, but my point is to stop giving then money when they don't come through with a title that's:

1. Playable fully out the box
2. Innovative and what the people want.
3. Reflects the mission statement.

We need to be past these companies releasing games every year. They can upgrade on the fly, and provide a software patch for the new year. Especially EA sports. They add very little to their titles year by year, it's time to release on 2-3 yr basis.

As far as you mentioning them losing money, did you buy the game? If you bought the game, you know other will and did also. It's about re-establishing your brand. They quit, while we still shell out the money for these below par games.

[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by BizDevConglomerate

As I stated, that's was then. Look at the amount of people starving for these games. At that moment it was taken for granted to have those titles. Even the MLB game, but my point is to stop giving then money when they don't come through with a title that's: 1. Playable fully out the box 2. Innovative and what the people want. 3. Reflects the mission statement. We need to be past these companies releasing games every year. They can upgrade on the fly, and provide a software patch for the new year. Especially EA sports. They add very little to their titles year by year, it's time to release on 2-3 yr basis. As far as you mentioning them losing money, did you buy the game? If you bought the game, you know other will and did also. It's about re-establishing your brand. They quit, while we still shell out the money for these below par games.

That's NEVER going to happen...the leagues and companies will never allow it. EA is a publicly traded company, have fun convincing stockholders they are going to be getting about of half the money they get in dividends every year. And good luck convincing the league that they won't get their cut of royalties from the game every year and they have to wait an extra to get that money back.

It doesn't matter if I bought the game or not. Because the majority of fans didn't buy the game. March Madness averaged 11.3 million viewers this year. And 2010 the last year of a college basketball game the final drew 23.9 million viewers. The game I think sold around 800K copies. That's only 3% of viewers of the final game that year. You need more than 3% of your fans to be buying your game.

[BizDevConglomerate]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

That's NEVER going to happen...the leagues and companies will never allow it. EA is a publicly traded company, have fun convincing stockholders they are going to be getting about of half the money they get in dividends every year. And good luck convincing the league that they won't get their cut of royalties from the game every year and they have to wait an extra to get that money back. It doesn't matter if I bought the game or not. Because the majority of fans didn't buy the game. March Madness averaged 11.3 million viewers this year. And 2010 the last year of a college basketball game the final drew 23.9 million viewers. The game I think sold around 800K copies. That's only 3% of viewers of the final game that year. You need more than 3% of your fans to be buying your game.

Please tell me, how do RPG games get so big? See my point is consumers are more apologetic therefore they buy these games and support theae.companies out of pity. Lol.

What about creativity? How much do they make from in game purchases? You seriously think if a college game was made available in game, or a mode that supports the draft class in 2k wouldn't sell? Where all they have to do is build an extRa mode for.recruiting, basically a college mode. That's not valuable? DLC only, and customizable? This year there are 11 teams in the game, people keep bringing up the past, look how many kids areally one and done today and play on the same team. That's not marketable?

With Spike Lee doing his thing on 2k, you think an actual college to.pros experience wouldn't be as exciting? I do. And the same for football, with Harbaugh being back in college and at Michigan, you really think people won't like to play UM vs. OSU? CMON MAN.

Innovation is what's missing. And there are gamers interested in college sports. The company would still have to market and sell the product. But if you look at my argument, they make game disks 2-3 yrs apart, in between send a patch that's paid for. Lose your disk or trade the game in, buy another copy, or store it on the drive. Innovation man. Change it up. They don't wait to get paid, because they'll get paid yearly, and cut cost on blu rays, as if they spent a lot anyway. But that will also reduce wear on the blue ray inside the console. Less maintenance. As a consumer, you can't be against that. Lol. Who wants to pay more for less? How bout may equal value. In 2-3 yrs a new disk should be ready with amazing upgrades. Now 3-4 disck.releases and a new console should be ready. Really. Things need to change.

[Shadymamba]

Thanks Ed O'Bannon - if your NBA Career was half decent we probably wouldn't be going through this mess LOL