EA sued by gamers over football exclusivity

by Ross Miller { Jun 12th 2008 at 11:53AM }

Two gamers have filed a lawsuit against Electronic Arts, alleging that the publisher's exclusivity agreements with the NFL, NCAA and Arena Football have led to anti-competitive practices. The focus of the suit, according to Gamespot, stems from EA's actions after sales of Take-Two's NFL 2K5 pushed the publisher to drop Madden 2005 from $50 to $30. Instead of competing with Take-Two, according to the suit, EA entered into multiple exclusivity agreements and was able to raise the price of Madden 2006 back to $50.

Additionally, the suit notes that should the EA-Take-Two acquisition come to fruition, it would "remove one of the few companies with the ability and expertise to compete in the market for interactive football software." The plaintiffs seek restitution for all those who purchased an EA football game after August 2005, "disgorgement of all profits made as a result of anticompetitive actions, and that the infringing agreements be declared null and void."

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, law, lawsuit, legal, madden, nfl-2k5, suit, take-two

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

quickshade @ Jun 12th 2008 11:55AM

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus loves us.

This is one time when Sue happy = good!

Co @ Jun 12th 2008 1:18PM

As good a movie story like this seems to be, this will fail miserably.

Honestly, take this quote for example: "the suit notes that should the EA-Take-Two acquisition come to fruition, it would "remove one of the few companies with the ability and expertise to compete in the market for interactive football software.""

Get real. So Take-Two and EA are the only two companies capable of making football games?

WiiFTW @ Jun 12th 2008 3:47PM

Well, who else has made a game before the exclusivity agreement that was actually competitive to EA's Madden? Nobody. The same way in other sports (Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, etc.) there is an EA version (i.e. NHL 08) and a Take-Two version (NHL 2K8). Both versions are relatively close in sales and are competitive because BOTH VERSIONS have the big-name pro players. That's what the difference is. Whoever gets that basically wins. End of Story.

I've been waiting for this lawsuit for ages.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread) @ Jun 12th 2008 5:53PM

MLB: The Show says hi.....

RK @ Jun 12th 2008 11:56AM

I really hope they win this one. I really miss the NFL 2K series. Madden has really been disappointing.

E.J. @ Jun 12th 2008 2:35PM

They should turn this case into class-action.

whookid @ Jun 12th 2008 11:57AM

Now if we could just buy out EA.....

The Artist formally known as Jesus @ Jun 12th 2008 12:16PM

Then we have become the very thing we have sought out to destroy...

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jun 12th 2008 1:08PM

Yeah...WHATEVER, JESUS!

*Proceeds to buy out EA, ruin life, wish that he had listened to "The Artist"*

tdub301 @ Jun 12th 2008 5:10PM

well, sometimes you just gotta fight fire with fire

give them a taste of their own medicine and they may stop... well, probably not since this won't work anyway

Donald @ Jun 12th 2008 11:57AM

And there's a flag on the play...

"Personal foul, lawsuit with no chance in hell of winning, he was givin' him the business down there, first down."

In all seriousness, I would LOVE for this to work but I suspect EA will give the original members of the class a bag of money and tell them to go away.

NATO_Duke @ Jun 12th 2008 12:34PM

I dunno, I would think these people lack standing on the issues and will lose the case outright. I guess I would have to read the suit to really get a good idea though.

tdub301 @ Jun 12th 2008 5:10PM

haha, great "referee going by the rulebook" reference. Now if only the NBA would admit they order their referees to make shady calls... then we could actually have the better teams win, instead of the teams the NBA wants to win so they'll make more money

sean @ Jun 12th 2008 11:58AM

I think this is a waste of time and money because ea will win this case no matter what on the count they have way better lawyers, and btw im a way big madden fan anyways

nealbailey @ Jun 12th 2008 12:36PM

"I think this is a waste of time and money because ea will win this case no matter what "

Sorry guys but lawsuits aren't subject to the same trivial fanaticism that fanboys are, they're subject to the law and this sounds like a compelling case.

EA did in fact conspire with the NFL to fix their price for the Madden series in the wake of massive competitive sales by the 2K Series. This is a noble lawsuit and I hope EA can't buy their way out of it.

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 11:59AM

These people are dumbasses, they're suing the wrong people.

As much as I love the NFL and hate EA, this exclusive license stuff is the NFL's fault, not EA's. It was the NFL who had the idea, and put their exclusive license up for bid (much like Sunday Ticket on Directv), all EA did was bid on it just like everyone else, their bid was just higher.

Rest assured, if EA didn't have the exclusive license, someone else would.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 12th 2008 12:05PM

I'd say "Wow, that was a thorough and reasonable arguement" if not for the mentioning of the recent Take 2 actions from EA and how, once EA secured exclusive licenses to sports, quality has steadily gone downhill. Not even mentioning the sports they've skipped for an entire year or longer.

AwesomeTown @ Jun 12th 2008 12:17PM

I can see what you mean, but this is as much EA's doing as the NFL. It's basically abuse of the NFL's antitrust exemption in my opinion. It might not fall under that, but it sure seems like it. This is just bad for the consumer and the agreement should never have happened. Shame on you EA and the NFL. Shame.

copa @ Jun 12th 2008 12:22PM

Vcize is 100% correct. If EA had approached the NFL and said, "We refuse to deal with you unless you sign an exclusivity agreement with us," AND if such a threat would have been financially crippling to the NFL (it wouldn't have) so they had no choice but to accept it, then you might have grounds for a lawsuit about anticompetitive behavior here.

That's not what happened here. The NFL offered an exclusivity agreement for competitive bidding, and EA won the bid.

Complaining about the state of pro sports franchises under EA may be emotionally satisfying, but there is not legal basis for this suit. It is completely retarded.

Chris @ Jun 12th 2008 12:26PM

Here's the thing, though:

The NFL is protected by anti-trust laws. They cannot, legally, be sued for this.

So these two gamers have chosen to go after EA instead.

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 12:45PM

"once EA secured exclusive licenses to sports, quality has steadily gone downhill. Not even mentioning the sports they've skipped for an entire year or longer."

No doubt the quality has gone downhill. I bought every Madden game from '95 through '05 and wasn't able to keep '06 through '08 for more than a week before selling them, but that's not really the point here.

They were essentially forced into the agreement. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they loved the idea, but their choices were either get the exclusive license or have no license at all and let someone else have the exclusive license. They did not go actively seeking it, they just submitted the highest bid that was requested by the NFL.

So what is these guy's case going to be? Even though the NFL were the ones that put the license up for bid we feel that these game's subjective quality has gone downhill in our opinion since securing the license that they were asked to bid on?

Yeah, that'll fly in court....

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 12:50PM

"Here's the thing, though:

The NFL is protected by anti-trust laws. They cannot, legally, be sued for this.

So these two gamers have chosen to go after EA instead."

Good point about NFL anti-trust laws.

All that should mean though is that they have no case at all, not that they have a case against someone else.

The real crime here though is that while EA deserves a lot of the hate they get, they get a TON of hate they don't deserve by people that just assume that EA went to the NFL and said "oh hey NFL 2k5 was a good game so we want to buy the exclusive NFL license and put them out of business" (this is even referenced in the article) when that's not actually how it went down at all.

People can hate them for getting complacent with the series, and people can hate them for trying to take over Take Two now, but they get a lot of hate for this exclusive license which was actually not their fault while people act like the NFL is another victim in this when they're the true aggressor.

RPGJock @ Jun 12th 2008 5:18PM

Don't forget to blame the NFL Player Association also. They jumped on the bandwagon too. You can't use any of the members of the NFLPA without their license agreement also.

sicsided @ Jun 12th 2008 11:59AM

still waiting on Backbreaker....

juju187 @ Jun 12th 2008 12:01PM

I like to play monopoly too...

riggs @ Jun 12th 2008 12:07PM

if ea gives back football to 2k sports can 2k let them have baseball? seriously the mlb2k series keeps getting worse and worse

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 12th 2008 12:20PM

I didn't know Take 2 had MLB... how does that work with Sony making games as well too?

LiqwidZero @ Jun 12th 2008 12:22PM

MLB 2k1 on the Dreamcast was the best.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 12th 2008 12:27PM

Well, I heard The Show was damn good, downloaded the demo, and remembered why I don't play basebal games...

Donald @ Jun 12th 2008 12:29PM

The MLB agreement is for third parties only, IIRC.

jimy @ Jun 12th 2008 12:34PM

That would be great, MVP Baseball 2005 is the best baseball game ever.

riggs @ Jun 12th 2008 12:36PM

@ wong: i was talking about letting ea make the game instead, not any contractual agreements or anything.

kbomb1upc @ Jun 12th 2008 1:24PM

@jimy
No, MLB The Show 08 is the best baseball game ever. Seriously, if you haven't played it you need to. It plays similar to MVP but without all the glitches and bad announcing. This game is easily better than that crap MLB2K. I don't why everyone wants to hate on Madden when 2K has done the worst job with license. And even in 05, Madden was still better than 2K, but not by much.

Bryan T @ Jun 12th 2008 5:09PM

You are all wrong.

Best Baseball game = Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball (the original, not winning run) for the SNES.

mr mobius @ Jun 12th 2008 12:12PM

The good thing about football (soccer) in Europe is that even though EA has the license to use the team names for Fifa, Pro Evo is still selling great and although I don't know the official figures I'm guessing they're about even.

Negativecool @ Jun 12th 2008 12:12PM

Hell yea! Get pwned EA! Get PWNED!

LiqwidZero @ Jun 12th 2008 12:21PM

If the NFL payed EA to publish games exclusively, wouldn't that mean EA is being commissioned? Being commissioned to do something isn't anti-competitive, or so I believe. If anything, the NFL is liable for this "anti-competitive" practice.

Neil @ Jun 12th 2008 12:25PM

That doesn't look like football, he has the broken ball in his hand!!!

Shagittarius @ Jun 12th 2008 12:42PM

Is that some kind of lame soccer joke?

verymetal @ Jun 12th 2008 12:27PM

IF EA can be sued over this, then my question is can we sue other gamers for glitching during a game of Madden. LOL...

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 12:53PM

You'd probably have just as good a chance of winning that case as these guys do with this case.

Marty @ Jun 12th 2008 12:43PM

They have the right idea, but they shouldn't seek restitution - the courts should just declare the practice of exclusivity agreements unlawful in this case and we should move forward.

Travis @ Jun 12th 2008 12:51PM

i'd let EA buy me out if I were these guys..."here's some cash...STFU"

schwing

Gronk @ Jun 12th 2008 12:54PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitrust

Competition = Good for Everyone

googoogachoo @ Jun 12th 2008 12:58PM

they need to take the issue up with the NFL. MLB, NBA, even the NHL didn't go exclusive, and EA has licenses to those as well. NFL, PGA, NASCAR, FIFA, and NCAA all chose to go to EA with the exclusive license to their property.

A large chunk of EA's business is licensed sports gaming, so I don't blame them for going out and getting what is made available by the companies owning the licenses.

kbomb1upc @ Jun 12th 2008 1:30PM

@googoogachoo
You're wrong. They're fighting for a company who has done the same exact thing as EA but for baseball. 2K bought the exclusive rights to MLB, but any first party company (Sony) can make a baseball game. And lucky they did because MLB2K sucks big time. Madden has done a much better job with the exclusive license than the stuff 2K puts out every year with MLB sticker on it.

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 1:55PM

APF2k8 failed because it wasn't a very good game, plain and simple. It had many of the same faults Madden did, people just like to cry for it because it's the little guy now and because 2k5 was so good. People decided 2k8 was going to be an underappreciated gem before it was ever released.

That said, no NFL icense definitely hurt bigtime. They took a shot at the made-up teams thing with retired players and it didn't work.

Ironically, a while back it was EA faced with this problem when Madden 64 released without the NFL license. They chose to go the route of "copy the NFL without actually using the license" by creating teams like the Foxboro Patriots and South Florida Dolphins and they did OK. Not great, but OK.

This is the route take two should go. With as stale as Madden has gotten I think a lot of people would overlook minor differences like "Miami" vs. "South Florida" if the game was far better, but they are less likely to overlook "Miami Dolphins" vs. "totally made-up team with no NFL equivalent".

Vcize @ Jun 12th 2008 1:57PM

Yikes, that was supposed to go under JP's post down the page further.

googoogachoo @ Jun 12th 2008 3:16PM

@ kbomb1upc:

it's nice to root for the "little guy" I suppose, but 2k puts out the only MLB game for 360 owners, and even by the most gracious reviews, the games are mediocre.

My point was that the leagues as license holders decided to go exclusive with EA. I'm sure both the NBA and MLB were courted by EA, but they chose to go different routes than what the NFL, NASCAR, and FIFA did. That's their right as license holders to their own unique property.

If you hate having to choose between an EA NFL game or a 2k generic game, then complain to the NFL. Suing EA is a waste of everyone's time, as there's nothing illegal with buying an exclusive license provided by another company.