So, as a football fan and a video gamer, I was disappointed to read that Electronic Arts (or EA, for the inaugurated) had purchased exclusive rights to the NFL for the next 5 years, thus ensuing they won't have any competition for a long time. Then they bought Criterion Studios in order to gather revenues from all games using the Criterion-developed RenderWare engine, which is used in almost everything from "Burnout 3" to "Grand Theft Auto 3." Now, I'm hearing that EA won't pay overtime to their employees and switch personnel between games that are on the wire--that is, taking one designer off of a game at crunch time and putting them on another crunch time game--in order to avoid paying them comp time. Now I come to find out that they've purchased an almost 20% stake in Ubi Soft--without Ubi Soft's conscent. One Ubi Soft spokesman said that EA was trying to cash in on their long-term plans, which include next-gen versions for "Splinter Cell" and "Ghost Recon." Word is that EA may make a hostile takeover on Ubi Soft.

This type of crap just pisses me off. EA did make some quality games in their day, but it's like the instant someone comes along with something as good or better than their product, they decide to take the low road and use their money to block anything else like that--or make it so they get some chunk of change. I used to like EA, but now it's becoming a strained relationship. So, I will not be buying "Madden 2006" this year, and maybe nothing else from them again. I know it probably won't make a difference, but EA just ticks me off.

Renderware rules. I can hand code that stuff.

But I never play anything besides EA football games...

Wasnt their a topic about this back in November?

yes there was.....

EA also made an agreement for the ESPN liscense for the next 15 years. IMO EA knows Madden 2005 couldn't compare to 2K5, thats why they had to buy the liscense to anything and everything that was NFL related. I don't play football games, but 2K5 did "own my soul." Tecmo was also thinking about bringing back the Tecmo Bowl series, but now that EA owns rights to the NFL, who knows, they can have their own characters, probably end up using some of their DOA characters.

Madden and their other sports games are EA's cash cows. They're doing everything they can to keep ringing that cash register.

I hate EA for the most part. The only quality stuff they've put out recently (from an in-house dev team) have been the EA Big games, SSX3 most notably. Other than that, I consider EA to be run by a bunch of hacks. The announcements about the NFL and ESPN liscensing just goes to prove it. Instead of putting out a better product to compete with an increasingly popular rival, they shut out the competition. Sure, it's business, but it's dirty business.

And don't even get me started on what they're doing to Ubisoft.

I want to see a revival of the mutant league series. You don't need any NFL licenses for that!

What are they doing to Ubisoft?

They bought 20% of their stock meaning they have more stocks than the founders.


I hate EA. They shut down both Westwood Studios and Maxis, two of the best PC developers, they destroyed the C&C brand, and now have a monopoly on NFL games.

EA bought 20% of Ubisoft's stock last month. That's a move that, in the business world, is considered a prelude to a hostile takeover. Ubi's top rival, Infogrames (Atari in the states), and even the French Government have pledged their help in preventing such a takeover. The second largest private stockholdings belong to a French family that was involved with the creation of Ubisoft. They hold 17.5% of the stock.

EA insists this was not a hostile move.


Bullsh!t.

I do think Burnout 3, which was developed by Criterion, was a great game, and especially compared to the first two, showed the kind of polish that EA can bring to a title. However, I think they're roughly equivalent to Microsoft in the PC industry; they're the 800 pound gorilla and they're throwing their weight around right now. I do wonder if they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar with the UbiSoft deal and are waiting for the excitement to die down before they do anything or what.

EA is definetely the devil. They attempted too buy other sports league exclusivity deals but were turned down. Hey theres always the CFL

EA is also now signing liscence deals with nintentdo too include nintendo characters in EA games. For example mario, luigi, and peach in NBA street 3. Granted its only the gamecube version, I still die a little inside when I look at this picture...

For more EA bashing fun check this VG Cats comic.

I call him doormat.

I don't really play many EA sports games anymore, I haven't for a long time. Getting an exclusive license is probably the worst thing for the people who love NFL football games. Now with no competition in the NFL game market they have no reason to go the extra mile to put out a quality game so now they can basically throw out the same exact game year after year with little or no improvements to it because they are the only ones who make the game. Sure there will be slight differences but I doubt if they'll have any major improvements.

I used to love to play video games, but over the past few years I've lost interest in playing them at all. As far as they've advanced, they just don't seem as fun anymore, some of them are almost a chore. I'm sure the expense has a lot to do with it too!