i have PURCHASED both ESPN Football 2k4 and 2k5.

TRASH i tell ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fucking waste of money!!! i should've learned my lesson when i bought 2k4.

2k5 is trash also...


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EA is a very good company. they business practices might not appeal to everyone but they make great games.

Maxis is also apart of EA, and they make great games also (Sims, Simcity)

Ok this really burns me... EA is a good company, I have bought previous Maddens and other EA games and they are very good quality. Why would they have to start a monopoly war on exclusive licenses, I hope ESPN gets basketball so it becomes a little more fair.

I will tell you this I will not buy a 59.99 football (or any other game) If it was 29.99 or 19.99 I would buy it but sure as hell wouldn't pay that much for it.

EA can go *&@K itself

Actually the fanboy sounds like an EA employee... is your signature the company line friend?

EA buys 20% of Ubisoft
 

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/20/tech...reut/index.htm

Didn't want to make a thread since this kinda deals with EA's "Monopoly" on gaming.

Heard about the shares purchase from my coworkers. This blows, since EA's attitude towards their employees, as detailed in EA spouse and Joe Straitiff's livejournals, is less than exemplary. Ubisoft was getting that way, but changed their attitude, from what I was told. If EA acquires Ubisoft, I hope that Ubisoft's employee reform at least stays around.

ok Madden definetly blows away ESPN 2k5 i have them both and trust me ESPN is just horrible

I in the Madden camp... love em. But now they can do whatever they want. 2005 will be the last game I buy from the EA NFL series. I'll get NCAA next year.

I hoped that ESPN's competition would drive EA to make a bigger, better Madden game--Not make minor improvements to each year's edition. Silly me. Just shut down the market.

Madden 2006's Slogan? "It's in the *only* game."

Besides, I'm set as long as ESPN/Sega keeps up the quality of their NHL games. :)

ugh, i just deleted a really interesting news article from my inbox.

basically what it said was this:

EA's plans for exclusive rights isn't limited to the NFL. Apparently, EA approached and was declined by the NBA for exclusive rights to their players. The reason the NBA gave was that they didn't think EA's NBA live was good enough and that an exclusivity deal would cause them to loose mone. Another company already signed a deal for licensing with the MLB. It's not exclusive by any means but the fact that another company has this deal means EA can't get exclusive rights to the

Nevertheless, EA tried to get exclusive rights to NBA players, and whether or not they failed makes me lose respect for the company. Furthermore, the Ubisoft situation and the class action lawsuit against EA for overtime comp and what not doesn't help either. Not to mention that they've been lacking in creativity for some while....

I read something about this too, it was something about some company getting a deal to make three games with the MLB name

EA did try to get an exclusive contract for the NBA and there first offer was rejected. However, who knows they might try again. If EA does get the deal I really want to know how much they spend, because unlike the NFL several companies make NBA sim and arcade games(Midway, Acclaim, 989 Sports, SCEA, Konami, Sega, MS, etc.). That's a lot of money to make up for in my book.

I think they are dropping the Madden name as well...

Ea buying the right to eliminate competition is the wrong thing to do. This is coming from a fan of the madden series. Personally i liked ESPN's game even though i liked Madden better. ESPN games were onthe rise Visually, Gameplay wise, and presentation. The 20$ price tag was not hurting either and forcing EA to lower their price. I dont know about you guys, but i rather pay less for games rathar than more which is what is looking like is going to happen.

This has really upset me. I was a fan of both games, despite the fact I was more used to playing the madden games. I just can't believe they would go out and sideswipe the other companies like this, especially the sega/espn games, rather than focusing on making improvements to outshine them. I have no idea about the law for this sort of thing, but I would almost think there would be some basis for the makers of the ESPN game to sue the NFL over this. While the NFL should have the right to negotiate contracts however they want, there was probably a reasonable expectation that they would be allowed to renew a contract with the NFL for future years. The developmental costs put into the ESPN games are probably pretty ginormous, and the money is given to that with the reasonable expectation to be able to publish the game as a NFL game. Now the NFL by signing exclusively with another company out of the blue has caused much of that money to be wasted, hence maybe a chance for a lawsuit?!?

Competition in these games is very important to prevent stagnation. Also there should be an expectation by a company that the money they've been investing since the beginning of the series would be applicable to future releases as well, rather than having the rug torn out from them.

Aaagh, I'm still too frustrated by this to maintain coherence, so I'll stop now.

And you know what's funny? Even with all the competition, each reiteration of Madden each year seemed little more than just a roster update. God knows what's going to happen now that they have no competition....

Good job NBA for rejecting EA's exclusive deal. Now only if the NFL weren't such fucking idiots.

Hey, cool, they've got the NCAA rights now, too. To me, this really eliminates any competition at all for the next 6 years. I don't think another company could realistically compete with fictional names and teams.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/11/tech...ltech/ea_ncaa/

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

now i am completely irate. i don't even know what else to say...

Ditto, you just can't replace a strong name like Urlacher :P