Why do people hate EA? Good read.

[Gameguy]

So Madden was on the verge of losing to a better game and a more motivated development team. They bought the license and forced the monopoly, and plagued us to football games of mediocrity. I still buy it every year because I'm a football fan with no other option.

Why would they bother making a better game when you'll just buy it anyway? They're the only one licensed to make an NFL game so there's no competition and as you said sports fans will just buy it anyway.

[j_factor]

Would you rather the development studios close down themselves because no funding or due to EA giving them funding and allowing them to attempt to create more games. There are a few studios that EA has bought up that have become more successful than they were before EA. The thing is. If it doesn't pull a profit, then do you really expect EA to keep funding a studio that isn't making any money. Use common sense.

That would be fine if EA was just letting their studios operate independently and simply pulling the plug if/when they don't bring in the cash. Origin in particular sure seemed like EA went out of their way to fuck them over. Maybe they might have pulled a profit, if EA had let them.

[kedawa]

EA's lack of support of the Dreamcast was one of the reasons it failed. Some people buy a new console just to play Madden and nothing else.

I'm glad those people didn't buy the Dreamcast. It may have been short-lived, but the DC is one of my all time favourite consoles because so many titles catered to arcade gamers instead of casual couch athletes. It could have used a decent golf game, though.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Whether or not it was the NFL's fault, or EA's fault, it still hurts gaming when competition is destroyed. Maybe by complaining about it, it makes it less likely to happen. Bad press can cause a company to reverse decisions, sometimes.

[BetaWolf47]

Source? As far as I'm aware, the details of the deal were never leaked publicly. Just rumors of it being roughly $300M for 10 years or something.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/0...ball-monopoly/
It cites a GameTap interview, which has a dead link. GameTap got rid of all of their old news articles and blog posts when Metaboli took over, by the way. So yeah, if EA hadn't been the highest bidder, we'd basically be whining about how 2K sports is releasing the same NFL game every year with an updated roster, and whining about how they stiff-armed the NFL into an exclusive deal. Which wouldn't be true either, by the way.

I still hate EA though.

You would be surprised how many gamers(including many people here on DP) are completely oblivious to this fact. They act like EA strong-armed the NFL by breaking into their headquarters and forced them by gunpoint to sign an exclusivity contract for NFL games. It was the NFL who only wanted one company to make their games, not EA.

Meh, I only found this out last week myself. Not really anyone's fault that it wasn't made clear enough to begin with.

[Gameguy]

Other companies can still make football games, they just can't use the team names or names of the players. Not sure why no other companies are trying, make another game like Mutant League Football or something else creative.

[BetaWolf47]

Other companies can still make football games, they just can't use the team names or names of the players. Not sure why no other companies are trying, make another game like Mutant League Football or something else creative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz:_The_League_II
And you saw what happened to Midway.

[Flashback2012]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz:_The_League_II
And you saw what happened to Midway.

There was also All-Pro Football 2K8. Tecmo released a couple of games on DS and Wii though I don't know how good they were. I think the problem with Blitz was it tried too hard to focus on the negative aspects of the game instead of building a solid football title. I guess they realized there was no pulling the Madden zombies away without the help of a NFL license so they turned everything on it's ear and went all out with the shock & awe. At this point it might be fair to say that everyone has resigned themselves to the idea that Madden is the only game in town (no pun intended) and don't feel its worth the time/effort to develop a competing title.

[kupomogli]

You've also got what happened with Blood Bowl. It gets announced. Everyone immediately thinks a next gen version of Mutant League Football. Then what happens? It's a TRPG game based on football. WTF? If it was a regular football game with fake names based on real teams and real players Mutant League Football style, the game probably would have sold for that reason alone. But they had to screw what everyone who saw the game thought would be a cool throwback title.

While EA might not develop the very best football games, you also have to think of the worst football games out there, or like Blood Bowl, the most stupid ideas out there. The EA football games nowdays are atleast good games to football fans. There was some real crap back on the SNES and Genesis. Super Play Action Football anyone(I only mention SPAF because it's probably the worst football game I've ever played?)

[Swamperon]

Meh, they ruined Bullfrog. That alone warrants my distaste for them.

[Porksta]

You've also got what happened with Blood Bowl. It gets announced. Everyone immediately thinks a next gen version of Mutant League Football. Then what happens? It's a TRPG game based on football. WTF? If it was a regular football game with fake names based on real teams and real players Mutant League Football style, the game probably would have sold for that reason alone. But they had to screw what everyone who saw the game thought would be a cool throwback title.

While EA might not develop the very best football games, you also have to think of the worst football games out there, or like Blood Bowl, the most stupid ideas out there. The EA football games nowdays are atleast good games to football fans. There was some real crap back on the SNES and Genesis. Super Play Action Football anyone(I only mention SPAF because it's probably the worst football game I've ever played?)

Blood Bowl was based off of the table top game of the same name. Only people not in the know would have thought it would be in the same vein as MLF.

[Greg2600]

I don't hate EA. They've definitely ruined a number of game franchises they bought up, but that was kind of to be expected since they no longer had the original people. It's not EA's fault that companies like Origin couldn't keep their financial house in order. I've enjoyed their Bond games and NFS games in the past. Just not much else original coming from them.

[Overbite]

Why do people hate EA? Let's ask EA instead of the people who hate EA.

[BHvrd]

Overcharging for DLC/excessive and not giving players what they are used to having or want.

Battlefield 3 example of missing features:

1. MOD tools
2. Battlerecorder
3. new/additional game modes (i.e. gungame, moh-style, titan, etc.)
4. voice chat
5. ping filter in server browser
6. off-line bots
7. epic maps from previous BF titles
8. Special forces kits (i.e. zip lines, grappling/rappelling hook, etc.)


Kinda the same ballgame with recent companies like Blizzard and Diablo 3, no mods, no LAN?? Fuck them...

They forget where they came from and why people liked them in the first place, that's why people hate on EA largely.

Also, where the fuck is Star Flight.....yeah, fuck EA for just those exact things listed, to be "specific".

[substantial_snake]

^^Battlefield 3 has become more and more a disapointment as time goes on and the excuses for why those things aren't implemented are so frustrating that I've pretty much stopped playing.

EA's buying out of, excessive meddling in, and eventually gutting of Westwood still hurts to this day.

I don't hate EA and I understand they are a business but those past actions will always paint a black mark that they can't really redeem.

[Porksta]

You can't talk with your own team in BF3? Whaaaaat?

[duffmanth]

I don't hate EA. They've definitely ruined a number of game franchises they bought up, but that was kind of to be expected since they no longer had the original people. It's not EA's fault that companies like Origin couldn't keep their financial house in order. I've enjoyed their Bond games and NFS games in the past. Just not much else original coming from them.

One of the reasons I don't like EA much anymore is that the quality of their games is so inconsistent. Ten years ago franchises like Madden, Need for Speed and Medal of Honor were among the greatest games around, now they're among the shittiest, least cutting edge games around. EA has come out with some great games in the last few years like Battlefield, Burnout, Mass Effect etc, but it just seems like their games are so hit or miss because they have so many games on the go at the same time.

[eggwolio]

there hasn't been an NBA Live since '08. Just football and hockey.

There have, however, been a couple of NBA Jam titles and they've been awesome.

[Rob2600]

What ever happened to the NBA Street series?

[Griking]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/big-dea...eement-6114977

A few paragraphs down.

This link pretty much says that EA fought for the right to have an exclusive license and not that the NFL only wanted to work with one company.

Electronic Arts has signed the biggest sports free agent on the market. In a devastating blow to competitors--and in a deal sure to reshape sports gaming--the software giant signed an exclusive agreement with the National Football League and the NFL Players Inc., a subsidiary of the NFL Players Association.

The deal, one EA admits to having lobbied for over the past few years...

[duffmanth]

This link pretty much says that EA fought for the right to have an exclusive license and not that the NFL only wanted to work with one company.

It's exactly reasons like this why myself and many others don't have much use for EA. I do however, miss NBA street!

[duffmanth]

There have, however, been a couple of NBA Jam titles and they've been awesome.

NBA 2K has always been a much better game than NBA Live, so I don't really miss Live. I do miss NBA Street.

[Robocop2]

They cpuld have a perinnial contract with every spots agency n creation and i would not care one iota. I don't care about sports games and EA gave me Dead Space amongst numerous other games that I've loved over the last 20 years so, I dont hate them at all personally. Sure they do some rather irritating things like the online pass thing and that does piss me off but I can still laud the positive things too.