http://americandreamcomics.com/index.php?catid=115&itemid=5433 The NBA says "no" to exclusive agreement with EA by Three Storms at 07:56:33 AM on 12/21/2004 NBA rejects EA's big for exclusivity, plus more dealings behind the scenes in the sports game arena. December 20, 2004 - Last week, Electronic Arts, the NFL, and Players Inc. sent shockwaves throughout the gaming industry as they announced an unprecedented five-year exclusivity partnership. But it looks like Electronic Arts had even bigger plans as they also bid on exclusive arrangements with the NBA. Sources have told me, however, that the NBA has rejected EA's initial offer. One of the reasons is that the NBA Live series simply doesn't have a stranglehold on the market the way Madden has for years, so by signing an exclusive deal with EA, the NBA would actually be losing money. There are simply too many NBA video game properties that sell big units for the deal to make sense, from the ESPN NBA series to NBA Ballers to 989's games that are set to hit both the PS2 and PSP. Sources aren't quite as clear in terms of potential dealings with Major League Baseball as a few publishers were worried a deal was already in place for EA to step in and take over like they did with the NFL. But after the EA/NFL deal went down, at least one publisher was able to re-up their MLB contract for three more games, so it looks like a false alarm as the only exclusive EA was able to lockup for the time being was the NFL. In other EA news, they were able to purchase 20% of Ubisoft on Monday. What does that have to do with sports games, you might ask. Well, Ubisoft is developing the And1 street hoops game to compete with NBA Street V3. Whether or not this puts an end to the game's development, we'll have to wait and see. -- Jon Robinson
GRENDAL - shouldn't your sig say "four day weekend" instead of three? Yeah your right I don't have anything better to do. Pugs
Thank God, I honestly dont know why NFL wanted just one company to make their games, its pure studpidty in there part cause they are a bunch of gamers out there that buy both games. EA mustve shelled a crap load of money for the rights.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/ EA did not announce the terms of the deal, but sources told me the price tag was north of $300 million (though well below the $500 million figure some have suggested).
The NFL seems to like giving out exclusive contracts. Just like with EA, it irritates the hell out of me that they did that for their Sunday Ticket with DirecTV only since many people can't get satellite.
I read about this last night and was glad for a moment until someone on the internet bolded some key words: I guess this means EA could still end up with the NBA license if they increase the "initial offer." Another interesting tidbit is how it seems like EA approached the NBA about the deal instead of the other way around, which is what EA claimed the NFL did in their deal. I would assume that the NBA will give their rights to all the games though. Like the article mentioned, it would most likely make more money by not being exclusive than being exclusive, especially with NBA games like NBA Ballers. Of course, that won't stop EA. As the article mentioned, they bought 20% of Ubisoft, which I believe is more than even the founders of Ubisoft have. They see the move as hostile and are trying to find ways to keep EA away. EA is also working on taking over DICE, who makes the Battlefield series. For a bit of comparison, I saw a graph online that someone made that showed the %'s of total games sold on the main platforms today (PS2, GC, Xbox, PC IIRC) by publisher. EA had about 22% of all sales with Sony Computer Entertainment in 2nd place with about 7%. However, this doesn't factor in the possible move to buy Ubisoft, which makes up 3% of the sales. That's just crazy, IMO. I believe I read that they were planning on going back to normal pricing with the ESPN games, so unless EA just wants to sell Live at $30 while ESPN NBA is $50, that may not happen.
Actually it was $40 when it first came out, then dropped to $30 a month later. As for ESPN's games staying at $20, I hear that it will probably last until the new generation systems come out, which is about another year or so.
... But strangely enough, the NFL (okay, Players, Inc.) won't let card companies sign players to exclusive deals...
The funny thing is that some company will make a Football game that is innovative etc, and not part of the NFL and it will sell. DD
How do people actually enjoy playing NBA LIVE? I mean the game was good like back in 1995. The graphics are sub-par, gameplay is unrealistic, presentation sucks. The only thing that LIVE has is that slam-dunk contest. VC's 2k series has always ruled even though their last couple of efforts weren't up to par with their standards. NBA 2k2 for the dreamcast is quite possibly the best BBALL game ever made. Just like someone mentioned before, 'competition breeds, excellence'...I'm glad the NBA said no. but i doubt EA will ever be more than avg
