Sunday, April 10, 2011

You are now suing EA

If you've bought an EA Sports made football game (Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football League) from 2005 onward, you are now involved in a California class-action lawsuit against Electronic Arts concerning an alleged monopoly on the football game market.



Geoffrey Pecover and Jeffrey Lawrence have raised a class-action lawsuit against EA that defines the "class" as anyone who has bought an EA football game in the past six years (with the exception of people who have bought them on a mobile platform, bought them used, bought directly from EA or bought while working for EA). This suit was originally filed in 2008, but a judge recently approved the creation of the class. 


So why 2005? Because that is when EA entered into exclusivity agreements with the NFL, NCAA and the Arena Football League. The suit claims that these exclusivity deals constitute "unlawful anticompetitive actions" that have granted EA a monopoly in the genre. The suit specifically cites the Take Two, the makers of the critically acclaimed NFL 2K5, as EA's main competition that is suffering.


EA responded to the plaintiff's claims by denying everything but the bare facts, such as when it entered into and extended the exclusivity agreements. 


The plaintiffs are asking for a number of things, including unspecified restitution and damages, court costs, and "a declaration that the relevant agreements are null and void." The latter would open up competition in the football game market once again, which is really the main goal of the suit. 


For more information about the suit, or to exclude yourself from the class, head over to the suit's website here. 
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownApril 11, 2011 at 4:02 AM

    Hadn't heard about this but it doesn't sound like Take-Two or anyone else has a leg to stand on. For one thing, NFL has the right to license itself to as many or as few companies it wants. In fact, from what I heard, it was NFL's idea to make an exclusive video game license deal in the first place and EA just so happened to be the highest bidder. Secondly, EA doesn't have the monopoly on football games, they have the monopoly on 'official' football games. 2K could go ahead and release a competing football sim or arcade game and go from there. Basically, the problem stems from NFL not from EA so chances are this'll get tossed out immediately.

    However, I agree that one publisher having exclusivity rights to NFL, the most lucrative North American professional sport, just sucks and its bad for business. Thankfully no one is really complaining about Madden's quality. Personally, I'm more upset that Sony has The Show exclusively on their PlayStation platform because it's the best baseball sim on the market, all the others are terrible, and my dad would REALLY love a good new baseball sim on PC but no one will make one.

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