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I don't think that's adequate, that explanation is buck-passing. The NFL doesn't care about Madden or EA, it just cares about making money; if someone else offe

by aab0 10y ago

I don't think that's adequate, that explanation is buck-passing. The NFL doesn't care about Madden or EA, it just cares about making money; if someone else offered it more money, they'd sell the license to them. So why has EA been able to keep paying the NFL's bill and keep the fanbase to pay it off? It looks like they've been able to build a brand, and have invested a ton in constant finetuning and additional football-nerd details that a competitor would have serious difficulty in living up to in the first iteration of any AAA competing football game, combined with an annual iteration which means that with the usual 3 year development cycle, any competitor would be obsolete quickly.

ben_jones 10y ago
For one EA is ~3 times the size of Take Two interactive (parent of parent of 2k sports). Logic would dictate they just out bid on the rights to Madden each and every year. I've bought Madden every year up to 2015 and personally call bull shit on the idea that EA has continually added value to the franchise. They've added Ultimate team, a feature that lets users purchase players and bet on online games (it uses virtual currency so it's not gambling right!), as well as a handful of small feature improvements year over year... that's it. The biggest sell year on end is roster updating and graphics tweaks. TLDR; used to buy Madden every year, now I categorically don't.
- wldcordeiro 10y ago
  They've added value year over year, but the amount of value is lower than I think it would be with proper competition. EA's Soccer game Fifa has competition from Pro Evolution Soccer and the consumer is better off because of it.
- aab0 10y ago
  > For one EA is ~3 times the size of Take Two interactive (parent of parent of 2k sports). Logic would dictate they just out bid on the rights to Madden each and every year. That is still not an explanation. If Take Two Interactive can make more money off a NFL-licensed game than EA can, then the NFL will go with them; and if EA pays more for the NFL license than EA can make, then they are losing money each year, and potentially an enormous and crippling amount. There is no evidence they are bleeding constantly like you seem to postulate.
wldcordeiro 10y ago
Given that the contract was for 5 years initially, then extended another five and now it looks like another three at least I'd argue that it's plenty of explanation for why Madden is dominant. In the time that contract takes to expire it makes it completely unfeasible for any company to take on EA because no one will have Football game tech like Madden.
- aab0 10y ago
  And each of those expiries was yet another chance for another video game company to outbid EA. Yet, they did not.

by aab0 10y ago

ben_jones 10y ago

For one EA is ~3 times the size of Take Two interactive (parent of parent of 2k sports). Logic would dictate they just out bid on the rights to Madden each and every year. I've bought Madden every year up to 2015 and personally call bull shit on the idea that EA has continually added value to the franchise. They've added Ultimate team, a feature that lets users purchase players and bet on online games (it uses virtual currency so it's not gambling right!), as well as a handful of small feature improvements year over year... that's it. The biggest sell year on end is roster updating and graphics tweaks. TLDR; used to buy Madden every year, now I categorically don't.

wldcordeiro 10y ago
They've added value year over year, but the amount of value is lower than I think it would be with proper competition. EA's Soccer game Fifa has competition from Pro Evolution Soccer and the consumer is better off because of it.
aab0 10y ago
> For one EA is ~3 times the size of Take Two interactive (parent of parent of 2k sports). Logic would dictate they just out bid on the rights to Madden each and every year. That is still not an explanation. If Take Two Interactive can make more money off a NFL-licensed game than EA can, then the NFL will go with them; and if EA pays more for the NFL license than EA can make, then they are losing money each year, and potentially an enormous and crippling amount. There is no evidence they are bleeding constantly like you seem to postulate.

wldcordeiro 10y ago

Given that the contract was for 5 years initially, then extended another five and now it looks like another three at least I'd argue that it's plenty of explanation for why Madden is dominant. In the time that contract takes to expire it makes it completely unfeasible for any company to take on EA because no one will have Football game tech like Madden.

aab0 10y ago
And each of those expiries was yet another chance for another video game company to outbid EA. Yet, they did not.