EA buys ESPN License, Takes Huge Dump on Visual Concepts

remember that company a few years ago that had the #1 football game, #1 nascar racing game, mech action game, squad based shooter, flying sim, adventure game and so on

they were buying up companies left and right and seemed to be taking over the industry- now what was there name....

oh yeah, sierra...how are they doing now?

remember when atari dominated the industry? how about nintendo? or when rare couldnt miss? anyone ever thought sega would stop making consoles?

video games are very volatile, and gamers are very vindictive and finicky. if a company starts making out and out bad games, it doesnt matter how great they were, or how popular, the fans leave. games are made by actual people, not corporations and those people come and go all the time, turning seemingly great companies into ruin. Espn is just another license, ultimately no different than spongebob squarepants.
 
[quote name='murcielago77']Madden is gonna rule next year[/quote]


uh, DUH! it's because they are the only game around.....(not because they were the best)
 
at least , it will fix the presentation(I hope) one of the worst parts of madden, now if they would steal sega's running game( I HATE madden's "mario running") then we can talk about getting this game.....
 
[quote name='js1'][quote name='murcielago77']Madden is gonna rule next year[/quote]


uh, DUH! it's because they are the only game around.....(not because they were the best)[/quote]

For real. Just like people who are homeschooled shouldn't point out that they were valedictorians, there's nothing but shame to be gotten by pointing out that Madden will be the "#1 football franchise" next year.

myke.
 
[quote name='js1']at least , it will fix the presentation(I hope) one of the worst parts of madden, now if they would steal sega's running game( I HATE madden's "mario running") then we can talk about getting this game.....[/quote]

I liked the Madden running game, not really sure what "mario running" is.
 
[quote name='goergegavin'][quote name='MorPhiend']Okay all of you nay-sayers. I suppose that you still think that EA is not attempting a monopoly?!?[/quote]

Hmm.... My thoughts on this is that EA will bring in their own system after the next round and after Nintendo has died off too. (Sad but true). I think the way to stop this would be to have Sega and Nintendo merge, making Segendo or Nintega and Just having all companies work together to destroy EA.[/quote]

:rofl:
 
[quote name='Rozz']I'll get NBA Street 3 but used[/quote]

Same here or as cheap as possible as to take it to EA. I can wait for any sports game. It really isn't that hard, you just have to play the sports games you already have.
 
[quote name='MorPhiend'][quote name='Scrubking'][quote name='muncle']let's just hope that ea decides to release the espn games at 19.99[/quote]

Yeah, when hell freezes over, Satan moves to Utah and becomes a mormon.[/quote] :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:[/quote]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
[quote name='CrashSpyro123']
I liked the Madden running game, not really sure what "mario running" is.[/quote]

the mario running in madden is when your running back get stuck behind your lineman,(running in place) there are no animations that have the running back pushing him, twisting his body to get past/though etc.. ESPN does have these animations , so it leads to a more realistic looking/better controlling running game(you can actually run up the gut!). madden does do momentum better though...
 
This really sucks. This just keeps getting worse and worse. Buying up the NFL rights, the AFL rights, trying for the NBA (which they might still get), buying up about 20% of Ubisoft, and now this, what's next EA buying Visual Concepts and just calling it that.
 
[quote name='js1'][quote name='CrashSpyro123']
I liked the Madden running game, not really sure what "mario running" is.[/quote]

the mario running in madden is when your running back get stuck behind your lineman,(running in place) there are no animations that have the running back pushing him, twisting his body to get past/though etc.. ESPN does have these animations , so it leads to a more realistic looking/better controlling running game(you can actually run up the gut!). madden does do momentum better though...[/quote]

Ahh, I don't really get into those kinds of situations that often, so I guess I don't notice it. The momentum is what I particularly like, where you don't just stop on a dime while running full speed, which happened a lot in older games. I like the fact that they made hurdling an automatic move since I never reacted that quickly to use it and missed out on quite a few long runs.
 
[quote name='hiccupleftovers']This really sucks. This just keeps getting worse and worse. Buying up the NFL rights, the AFL rights, trying for the NBA (which they might still get), buying up about 20% of Ubisoft, and now this, what's next EA buying Visual Concepts and just calling it that.[/quote]

Nope, VC is being eyed by Take-Two, along with the rest of Sega's sports developers.
 
I am, and always will be against EA Sports, but I just have to say, that this comment really amazes me. This could be the start of something amazing in sports games if this is possible.

When asked to elaborate, Gibeau decline to go into specifics, but did say, "I think you can start to think about some of the core technology capabilities that are going to come online in the next few years with portability, wireless...you can think about the live feeds that can start to come in from ESPN inside of the games." For example, "being able to set rosters based on that night's rosters, brought to you by ESPN."

I may be forced to buy their game if they are able to do that. That really impresses me.
 
This sucks, hopefully they don't get DICE to cause I'll miss Rallisport Challenge. But I guess EA has my money for one game right now: Burnout 4, which im going to buy used anyways.
 
[quote name='CrashSpyro123'][quote name='hiccupleftovers']This really sucks. This just keeps getting worse and worse. Buying up the NFL rights, the AFL rights, trying for the NBA (which they might still get), buying up about 20% of Ubisoft, and now this, what's next EA buying Visual Concepts and just calling it that.[/quote]

Nope, VC is being eyed by Take-Two, along with the rest of Sega's sports developers.[/quote]

No I know that I was just trying to exaggerate a little to emphasise what EA has been doing to the gaming industry and in particular the sports sect of gaming.
 
[quote name='sj41']I am, and always will be against EA Sports, but I just have to say, that this comment really amazes me. This could be the start of something amazing in sports games if this is possible.

When asked to elaborate, Gibeau decline to go into specifics, but did say, "I think you can start to think about some of the core technology capabilities that are going to come online in the next few years with portability, wireless...you can think about the live feeds that can start to come in from ESPN inside of the games." For example, "being able to set rosters based on that night's rosters, brought to you by ESPN."

I may be forced to buy their game if they are able to do that. That really impresses me.[/quote]

The only thing about that is that it's been a possibility with online and sports games since they appeared on the PS2, so it's skeptical to me that they'll actually pull it off.
 
You know what needs to be revived? Mutant League Football. That's what'd crush EA and it's "Look at us with all the licenses! You can't have any!" shit.
 
[quote name='alongx']You know what needs to be revived? Mutant League Football. That's what'd crush EA and it's "Look at us with all the licenses! You can't have any!" shit.[/quote]

Not gonna happen for reasons stated many times before, it's EA's property.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Now that VC is freed up from football, they should bring back Ooga Booga...[/quote]

no can do...EA now owns the rights to the word Booga... :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
I wonder how many of you actually played sports games, football especially, before Take-two put out the ESPN 2k5 series? I mean last fall I heard an awful lot of people mention that they didn't normally buy sports games but would try 2k5 because it was $20 (which likely wasn't going to last past this year). There's nothing wrong with not playing sports games but I'm curious how many people are just jumping on the bandwagon.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I wonder how many of you actually played sports games, football especially, before Take-two put out the ESPN 2k5 series? I mean last fall I heard an awful lot of people mention that they didn't normally buy sports games but would try 2k5 because it was $20 (which likely wasn't going to last past this year). There's nothing wrong with not playing sports games but I'm curious how many people are just jumping on the bandwagon.[/quote]

just to get it out there, i often buy sports titles, but usually a year behind.

before nfl 2k5 i had ncaa 2004, and the year before, nfl 2k3. before that, madden 2002.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I wonder how many of you actually played sports games, football especially, before Take-two put out the ESPN 2k5 series? I mean last fall I heard an awful lot of people mention that they didn't normally buy sports games but would try 2k5 because it was $20 (which likely wasn't going to last past this year). There's nothing wrong with not playing sports games but I'm curious how many people are just jumping on the bandwagon.[/quote]

I've played sports games since the Atari days. I've played EA and Sega's football games for many years, dating back to Genesis/SNES(sports talk football), and including the NBA Action series on Saturn, the "2K" series complete since the Dreamcast days(all except NHL 2K and NHL 2K2). I'm no bandwagon jumper. But, what's wrong with people who started playing these games now or again because of the low price/high quality?
 
[quote name='gmzone'][quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I wonder how many of you actually played sports games, football especially, before Take-two put out the ESPN 2k5 series? I mean last fall I heard an awful lot of people mention that they didn't normally buy sports games but would try 2k5 because it was $20 (which likely wasn't going to last past this year). There's nothing wrong with not playing sports games but I'm curious how many people are just jumping on the bandwagon.[/quote]

I've played sports games since the Atari days. I've played EA and Sega's football games for many years, dating back to Genesis/SNES(sports talk football), and including the NBA Action series on Saturn, the "2K" series complete since the Dreamcast days(all except NHL 2K and NHL 2K2). I'm no bandwagon jumper. But, what's wrong with people who started playing these games now or again because of the low price/high quality?[/quote]

Nothing wrong with playing good games for a low price, that's what this whole community is about. However, if you only ever played NFL 2k5 and then comment on how much Madden sucks compared to it or how the 2k series trumped EA sports all the time then there's a little something wrong with that. I no offense to anyone but I just get this feeling from a small number of people commenting on this situation. Oh and you should pick up NHL 2k2, IMHO it's the best hockey game made for consoles within the last decade or so.
 
Im seriously getting to the point of, why should I even care anymore. There's just nothing we can do, and the sad thing is, all this does is really hurt the fans of video games. I'm sad because I lose my ESPN NHL hockey which was the one sports game i adored, i also lose being able to play something that was truly fun. I'm going to miss everything about the VC/ESPN brand. I can tell you that i'm sick of EA and i truly have lost a great deal of respect for them. I will not buy a single product they produce from now on and i'm absolutely not kidding you. If the building was on fire and i was standing in front of it i would throw gasoline on it only to watch them suffer.


yeah its twisted but i'm sick of ea they're pathetic and all they care about is the money. Take-Two and VC cared about the games and the public.

I hope you burn in hell Bing and your EA empire
 
[quote name='Maynard']Im seriously getting to the point of, why should I even care anymore. There's just nothing we can do, and the sad thing is, all this does is really hurt the fans of video games. I'm sad because I lose my ESPN NHL hockey which was the one sports game i adored, i also lose being able to play something that was truly fun. I'm going to miss everything about the VC/ESPN brand. I can tell you that i'm sick of EA and i truly have lost a great deal of respect for them. I will not buy a single product they produce from now on and i'm absolutely not kidding you. If the building was on fire and i was standing in front of it i would throw gasoline on it only to watch them suffer.


yeah its twisted but i'm sick of ea they're pathetic and all they care about is the money. Take-Two and VC cared about the games and the public.

[/quote]

See it's not the ESPN brand, you don't lose any VC hockey game, why? One because Kush Games actually did the 1st ESPN hockey game two years ago and a majority of the work for 2k5 and two because ESPN had crap to do with it other than lending a lame sportscaster and it's logo for some easy cash. Also Take-two and VC have been paired as part publisher and developer for less than one year and you think they're amazing. Take-two probably gives a crap about the public they just wanted to see some sales figures and VC may care about the games, and they'll continue to do so. Personally I'd like to see some games that aren't sports come from talented developers.

This is why I say some people are overreacting and don't understand the situation much at all.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell'][quote name='Maynard']Im seriously getting to the point of, why should I even care anymore. There's just nothing we can do, and the sad thing is, all this does is really hurt the fans of video games. I'm sad because I lose my ESPN NHL hockey which was the one sports game i adored, i also lose being able to play something that was truly fun. I'm going to miss everything about the VC/ESPN brand. I can tell you that i'm sick of EA and i truly have lost a great deal of respect for them. I will not buy a single product they produce from now on and i'm absolutely not kidding you. If the building was on fire and i was standing in front of it i would throw gasoline on it only to watch them suffer.


yeah its twisted but i'm sick of ea they're pathetic and all they care about is the money. Take-Two and VC cared about the games and the public.

[/quote]

See it's not the ESPN brand, you don't lose any VC hockey game, why? One because Kush Games actually did the 1st ESPN hockey game two years ago and a majority of the work for 2k5 and two because ESPN had crap to do with it other than lending a lame sportscaster and it's logo for some easy cash. Also Take-two and VC have been paired as part publisher and developer for less than one year and you think they're amazing. Take-two probably gives a crap about the public they just wanted to see some sales figures and VC may care about the games, and they'll continue to do so. Personally I'd like to see some games that aren't sports come from talented developers.

This is why I say some people are overreacting and don't understand the situation much at all.[/quote]

There's a reason why sports developers don't work on anything outside of sports, because they work on their games all year long and don't get time to do anything else frm year to year. They specialize in sports games and that's all they're asked to do.
 
[quote name='CrashSpyro123'][quote name='Duo_Maxwell'][quote name='Maynard']Im seriously getting to the point of, why should I even care anymore. There's just nothing we can do, and the sad thing is, all this does is really hurt the fans of video games. I'm sad because I lose my ESPN NHL hockey which was the one sports game i adored, i also lose being able to play something that was truly fun. I'm going to miss everything about the VC/ESPN brand. I can tell you that i'm sick of EA and i truly have lost a great deal of respect for them. I will not buy a single product they produce from now on and i'm absolutely not kidding you. If the building was on fire and i was standing in front of it i would throw gasoline on it only to watch them suffer.


yeah its twisted but i'm sick of ea they're pathetic and all they care about is the money. Take-Two and VC cared about the games and the public.

[/quote]

See it's not the ESPN brand, you don't lose any VC hockey game, why? One because Kush Games actually did the 1st ESPN hockey game two years ago and a majority of the work for 2k5 and two because ESPN had crap to do with it other than lending a lame sportscaster and it's logo for some easy cash. Also Take-two and VC have been paired as part publisher and developer for less than one year and you think they're amazing. Take-two probably gives a crap about the public they just wanted to see some sales figures and VC may care about the games, and they'll continue to do so. Personally I'd like to see some games that aren't sports come from talented developers.

This is why I say some people are overreacting and don't understand the situation much at all.[/quote]

There's a reason why sports developers don't work on anything outside of sports, because they work on their games all year long and don't get time to do anything else frm year to year. They specialize in sports games and that's all they're asked to do.[/quote]

I'm aware of the reasons, but according to all you guys they'll have time in the near future. Anyways near the death of the DC they worked outside of sports to make two good games, Floigan Bros. and Ooga Booga, I certainly wouldn't mind another try (I'll conveinently block out One for PS1). Also, they helped Black Box with Sega Soccer Slam, so I wouldn't mind another attempt at a more off the wall sports game like that either.
 
I'm glad I sold my take-two stock this past thursday, it is gonna take a beating tuesday. I might buy back some if it gets hammered hard enough.
 
Well VC doesn't have to pay the NFL or ESPN. So here is to the hope they spend that money on development and put out a bad ass football game.

But what the hell will they call it ? Football 2k6 ?
 
As much as I hate EA, this is a FORUM for christsakes! If Cheapy were to officially declare that it downright dislikes EA (sitewise) the objectivity of this forum would be reduced. Noobs joining the forum would assume that all members here are ALL anti-EA which is not right. Free speech would be muted before anyone utters the 1st word.

In other words, we here at CAG ALL believe in cheap games, not boycotting XYZ company. For that, I must disagree on having a unified stance on EA as we are not unified.

If you really have a urge to hurt EA, hurt them where it hurts most... the wallet.

VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR
 
You guys under estimate the hatred that has built up over the years between Sega and EA. It goes back the days when Trip Hawkins ran EA and Tom Kalinske ran Sega of America. Sega had a working relationship with EA... EA secretly developed the first Joe Montana football game.

But when Hawkins went into the hardware business himself, things changed. He called the 32X a "Bloody, pussy, Bandaid" and the Saturn a "Silicon Trashcan, and you can f'n quote me on that." Kalinske called Hawkins' 3DO machine a 'Awful idea by a guy who obviously buys into his own hype at the cost of his company's profit margin." The Japanese office of Sega hated Hawkins by this point and vowed never to work with EA ever again. This is why EA didn't make games for the Dreamcast. Their business model calls for EA to make games for every platform, but they really hated Sega. Since then, EA has overbid on stuff to keep things out of Sega's reach. This is an all out war.

It's been a war that's been building for decades. The $20 price tag was Sega's way of trying to win a war. A Pearl Harbor type move. The NFL deal and now the ESPN Deal is EA's Little Boy and Fat-Man atomic bomb one two punch. It's all over but the surrender.
 
i just will miss the voices of hockey thats what i'll miss the most in Nhl2k6, and survior charlie that is one sick collection of games. You realize roms don't count right?
 
Ea only allows 1 person online at a time while ESPN 2k5 games allow 2-4 people from one system to go against people on the net.

Big feature that EA will probably never fix since they now have 0 competition.
 
[quote name='CappyCobra']As much as I hate EA, this is a FORUM for christsakes! If Cheapy were to officially declare that it downright dislikes EA (sitewise) the objectivity of this forum would be reduced. Noobs joining the forum would assume that all members here are ALL anti-EA which is not right. Free speech would be muted before anyone utters the 1st word.

In other words, we here at CAG ALL believe in cheap games, not boycotting XYZ company. For that, I must disagree on having a unified stance on EA as we are not unified.

If you really have a urge to hurt EA, hurt them where it hurts most... the wallet.

VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR[/quote]

I agree with you completely :p

A lot of people on here say they hate EA, but it is very difficult to boycott ALL of their titles.

So you won't buy EA sports games ... how about the other titles? How about in the case of agreements like Square & EA had before? There's a lot of talk, but like you said it's not unified nor will it ever be.

EA will probably move to replace Madden with just the ESPN brand from now on.
 
[quote name='Scrubking']"...rumors of the company pursuing exclusivity deals with other sports leagues are starting to appear all over again. The appeal of the ESPN license could potentially be used to leverage deals with the MLB, NBA, or NHL."

[quote name='EA']"This relationship was created to benefit consumers who are passionate about sports games,"[/quote]
:puke:[/quote]

that would especially suck with the World Series baseball series. i have always been a huge fan of sega's baseball games. and if EA were to get exclusive rights to the MLB, then sega would be screwed. i like to play my sports games with the athletes that i know who they are. thats why i hate what EA is doing.
 
Smart move by EA, depending on how much money it cost them.

Be interesting to see just how solidly EA's football game dominates next year (I'm thinking maybe a 90% market share isn't out of the question) Also be interesting to see if they try to charge more than $50 per game since they'll basically be the only gig in town.

I like being able to play with the real atheletes and the real teams. But I think if a company is creative they could come up with a viable alternative. One solution would be to put teams in all the same cities as the NFL with similar looking and playing atheletes on each of the made up teams. You know the Atlanta Predators with a young scrambling QB, etc etc etc. (But I can't deny that would look very low-rent next to EA's game with real teams and player names)

Or they could try something like Midway is said to have in the works a game with a deep plotline based on a completely fantasy league (their's is based on Playmakers)

Personally I probably wouldn't pay a full $20 for a football game (got Sega's this year on a trade in deal) so I won't be getting it near launch regardless. A football game might be a good title to try a +$50 price point since a lot of the buyers are young professionals with plenty of discretionary income.

Oh, and I can't see myself boycotting any EA products. They tend to drop their prices slower than many other companies, so I tend to wait longer for their games, but in the end I own (or have owned) quite a few EA games and don't see that changing.
 
[quote name='punqsux'][quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Now that VC is freed up from football, they should bring back Ooga Booga...[/quote]

no can do...EA now owns the rights to the word Booga... :cry: :cry: :cry:[/quote]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
Instead of Madden ESPN 2007 I'll bet it will be a Monday Night football link since ABC is ESPN parent company and Madden is the man on that show. ESPN brand--locked, Madden--locked, Monday Night Footbal--next to be locked in?
 
[quote name='gmzone'][quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I wonder how many of you actually played sports games, football especially, before Take-two put out the ESPN 2k5 series? I mean last fall I heard an awful lot of people mention that they didn't normally buy sports games but would try 2k5 because it was $20 (which likely wasn't going to last past this year). There's nothing wrong with not playing sports games but I'm curious how many people are just jumping on the bandwagon.[/quote]

I've played sports games since the Atari days. I've played EA and Sega's football games for many years, dating back to Genesis/SNES(sports talk football), and including the NBA Action series on Saturn, the "2K" series complete since the Dreamcast days(all except NHL 2K and NHL 2K2). I'm no bandwagon jumper. But, what's wrong with people who started playing these games now or again because of the low price/high quality?[/quote]

It doesn't matter, this affects the whole industry, but just to answer you, I'm not big on American football, but love the real thing (soccer). But the last FIFA I bought was for the 64, which was horrendous. Since then, I've stuck to ISS and I'm thinking about buying Winning Eleven 8. EA has decided that money is more important than the consumer. And the bigger they get, the worse their games become. And soon we will not be able to choose, because they will be all that is left. Look at their announcement today about wanting to be the biggest entertainment company in the world. They said they are trying to be bigger than even Disney. They have now said it themselves. There is no more "speculation" as many have wanted you to believe. They want to gobble everything up that is possible.

This does affect the whole industry.
 
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/18/news_6116543.html

their marketing man claims to be a big fan of ESPN and watches it all the time, but does not even know any of the programming on the network.

[quote name='EA marketing director']But on the sports information side, you look at things like College Game Day, you look at some of ESPN's banner shows like NFL Tonight, things like that, wherein broadcast integration of our assets into their broadcast is an opportunity.[/quote]

I never knew there was a show named NFL Tonight. I know of an NBA Tonight (pretty sure this is still on, though Shootaround is the main NBA show), and an NHL Tonight, but nothing of this NFL Tonight.

If I am wrong, I am wrong, but I watch a ton of ESPN and have never heard of this show (unless this is the show with Suzy Kolber and Merill Hodge that is on once a week really late on the weekends)
 
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