EA Strikes Deal With NFL/Possibly Drops Their Spokesperson/Goes Insane
Poster: NachoKingP
Posted on December 14, 2004 at 4:26:26 PM
In a major move by EA, the game publisher responsible for the #1 football franchise for the last who knows how many years has struck a deal with the NFL to have EXCLUSIVE rights to ALL NFL properties, including teams, players, and stadiums for the next 5 years. What will this mean for their competition? The original Gamespot article can be found here.
In a related story, last week Sega Sports announced that they were going to can the $20 price point on their ESPN 2K line of games that they came out with this past year. It looks like Sega has gotten bit by the "bad timing" bug. What will this latest announcement from EA means for Sega's NFL 2K series? The article with the price changing announcement can be found here.
*UPDATE* EA apparently has lost all semblance of sanity. There is a rumor going around, unconfirmed as lots of rumors are, that EA is going to DROP JOHN MADDEN from their line of football games in an effort to maximize profits. If this rumor is true, I will have lost that tiny, itsy-bitsy speck of respect that I had left for EA. By dropping the namesake of their single biggest cash-cow, they would effectively be making the single biggest mistake in the history of gaming in my opinion. I hope EA isn't that incredibly stupid, although after their latest move, maybe they deserve what they get. The article regarding this rumor can be found here.
*UPDATE AGAIN* What in the wide world of sports if going on with EA? The latest news coming from Camp EA is that they are trying to buy a 19.9% share of Ubisoft, makers of a boatload of great games, including (but not limited to) the Tom Clancy series of games such as the Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell franchises. If EA is successful, it would make them the single-largest shareholder of Ubisoft. Who do they think they are, Microsoft? The article for THIS can be found here.
*YET ANOTHER UPDATE* As if EA hasn't been in the news this past week and a half, they just renewed their bid on Digital Illusions CE, the game publisher behind the widely popular Battlefield 1942, hoping to bring them under their umbrella of slave labor. DICE's board of directors nixed EA's original bid because they felt they would do better on their own. The article on the renewed bid can be found here.
In a related story, last week Sega Sports announced that they were going to can the $20 price point on their ESPN 2K line of games that they came out with this past year. It looks like Sega has gotten bit by the "bad timing" bug. What will this latest announcement from EA means for Sega's NFL 2K series? The article with the price changing announcement can be found here.
*UPDATE* EA apparently has lost all semblance of sanity. There is a rumor going around, unconfirmed as lots of rumors are, that EA is going to DROP JOHN MADDEN from their line of football games in an effort to maximize profits. If this rumor is true, I will have lost that tiny, itsy-bitsy speck of respect that I had left for EA. By dropping the namesake of their single biggest cash-cow, they would effectively be making the single biggest mistake in the history of gaming in my opinion. I hope EA isn't that incredibly stupid, although after their latest move, maybe they deserve what they get. The article regarding this rumor can be found here.
*UPDATE AGAIN* What in the wide world of sports if going on with EA? The latest news coming from Camp EA is that they are trying to buy a 19.9% share of Ubisoft, makers of a boatload of great games, including (but not limited to) the Tom Clancy series of games such as the Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell franchises. If EA is successful, it would make them the single-largest shareholder of Ubisoft. Who do they think they are, Microsoft? The article for THIS can be found here.
*YET ANOTHER UPDATE* As if EA hasn't been in the news this past week and a half, they just renewed their bid on Digital Illusions CE, the game publisher behind the widely popular Battlefield 1942, hoping to bring them under their umbrella of slave labor. DICE's board of directors nixed EA's original bid because they felt they would do better on their own. The article on the renewed bid can be found here.