(cinemablend) EA Could Pay $27 Million In Madden Price-Fixing Lawsuit

[Final8ty]

A lot of times there are uninformed gamers out there who buy and play games casually, and then one day by chancing a visit to a lesser known website or blog that uninformed gamer runs into one of the many hate-filled articles about EA. Said gamer then asks, sincerely "Why all the hate for EA?" and then a long laundry list of things will fill out subsequent replies. You can add the Madden price-fixing lawsuit to that laundry list.

According to Terminal Gamer, the court could force EA to pay out a $27 million dollar settlement in antitrust and consumer protection laws where they overcharged for their games. In game development money, EA could have made two Gears of War quality games for that amount, as well as seven Guitar Hero sequels. Yes, that's nine games EA could have made instead paying out money after screwing people over. Oh EA.

Attorney Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, the law firm representing consumers, stated that...

“After more than four years of hard-fought litigation, we have reached a settlement that we strongly believe is fair to consumers,”...“We look forward to moving this process forward and asking the court to approve this settlement, which we think is in the best interests of the class.”


I didn't know there was such a thing as "hard-fought litigation", I guess there was a lot of weasely-rhetoric and dodgy-diction being used in the court battles. I'm almost tempted to say that they should have hired Phoenix Wright, it would have had the case done in a hop, skip and a finger point.

Anyway, the stipulation not only sees EA potentially paying out to consumers $6.79 per sixth generation sports game (or titles released on the PS2, Xbox and GameCube) they'll also have to dole out $1.95 per game to consumers who own specific sports titles on seventh generation consoles (or games available for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3).

The court stipulation further deems not to sign a deal with the AFL over the course of the next five years and they cannot renew their license with the NCAA when it expires in 2014 until another five years after that. You know what means? It means 2K Games, Sega and any other publisher can grab the licenses for the AFL and NCAA and you won't be relegated to EA-only sports titles from those divisions. I think that's "woot-woot" worthy.

The court reportedly classed a number of consumers in the case for anyone who picked up a copy of Madden NFL, NCAA Football and any AFL title between January 1st, 2005 to the present. If you'd like to learn more about the court case, feel free to pay a visit to the Official HBSS Law Website or check out the original article over at Terminal Gamer.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Could-Pay-27-Million-Madden-Price-Fixing-Lawsuit-44867.html

 

[shortylickens]

JUSTICE!

Sweet, juicy justice!

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

If EA keeps getting bigger and bigger and buying more developers, wouldn't that eventually become an antitrust issue for PC gaming in general, not just sports games specifically?

 

[Blueoak]

The company's exclusivity agreement with the NFL, which brought an end to the NFL 2K series, was the primary target of the lawsuit, but both parties are free to continue under the same terms.

Ugh.. I want NFL exclusivity gone.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Ugh.. I want NFL exclusivity gone.

Exactly, the fact that there is STILL a rabid userbase of roster-updaters for NFL 2k5 is saying something. I still have my OG Xbox setup for my football fix. The astonishing thing about this is that the game was $20 at launch. I have it on the podium of greatest sports games of all time with Tecmo Super Bowl.

 

[lupi]

don't see any mention of nfl or nascar which makes this not so good.

 

[-Slacker-]

Wait, so what I'm getting from this is that they settled an antitrust lawsuit because they took advantage of their position as a monopoly and inflated the price on their NFL series, which, technically, isn't price fixing, as I understand it.

(I believe price fixing refers to at least two companies colluding to not compete against each other in order to sell a certain type of product as profitably as possible.)

...Although this still an unsurprisingly dickish move by EA. Another one for the pile, I guess.

 

[BD231]

Someone really needs to get the message to Roger Goodell what a sleezy company EA is.

 

[lamedude]

EA had exclusive rights to Arena Football?
Madden is $50/$60 like almost every other game and how it was when they didn't have exclusive rights. How is that overcharging? I can get Madden 12 for $20 at Amazon and $40 at Gamestop so its not like they never drop the price.

 

[diesbudt]

EA had exclusive rights to Arena Football?
Madden is $50/$60 like almost every other game and how it was when they didn't have exclusive rights. How is that overcharging? I can get Madden 12 for $20 at Amazon and $40 at Gamestop so its not like they never drop the price.

This is what I don't get.

I have never paid more for a New Madden game, then I have for any other New game of the same generation, for the same console.

That said, I think no one should have NFL exclusivity, but I don't see what they did to "overcharge".

Also Roger Goodell may know, but if EA wants to pay the NFL all that money to use the names/places/games, then why would they care who has NFL rights?

 

[Final8ty]

EA had exclusive rights to Arena Football?
Madden is $50/$60 like almost every other game and how it was when they didn't have exclusive rights. How is that overcharging? I can get Madden 12 for $20 at Amazon and $40 at Gamestop so its not like they never drop the price.

This is what I don't get.

I have never paid more for a New Madden game, then I have for any other New game of the same generation, for the same console.

That said, I think no one should have NFL exclusivity, but I don't see what they did to "overcharge".

Also Roger Goodell may know, but if EA wants to pay the NFL all that money to use the names/places/games, then why would they care who has NFL rights?

Right you decided to try one out and looking at the reviews and screen shots with 2 competing soccer games being very similar and one was £10 less than the other and thus was selling more and not to be out done the other then followed suite on price to try to catch up.

So in the case of those specific games the price could be lower than the average game because they are directly competing with each other.

And Look at what AMD did this round with gfx card prices with the 7xxx when there was no competition in that sector, it was damn high i thought and only when NV released the 6xx competition did the prices start to come down slowly, but some damage has been done as the bar is still higher than it used to be for what people are getting.
__________________

 

[diesbudt]

Right you decided to try one out and looking at the reviews and screen shots with 2 competing soccer games being very similar and one was £10 less than the other and thus was selling more and not to be out done the other then followed suite on price to try to catch up.

So in the case of those specific games the price could be lower than the average game because they are directly competing with each other.

I didn't know there was more than 1 Madden 2012 game out... my mistake. :hmm:

 

[Final8ty]

I didn't know there was more than 1 Madden 2012 game out... my mistake. :hmm:

Stop being pedantic.

 

[diesbudt]

Stop being pedantic.

Then what was your point? Because there is only 1 Madden 2012. So it can't literally compete with itself. It has no Competition. I agreed on no one should hold exclusive rights, but there was no price fixing I can see, Just the same price all games came out with.

If you compare NCAA to NFL, that isn't the same game. Sure they may play the same, but I am not a fan of playing NCAA football games. I am more into NFL. So even if price was different I would still pick Madden.

 

[Final8ty]

Then what was your point? Because there is only 1 Madden 2012. So it can't literally compete with itself. It has no Competition. I agreed on no one should hold exclusive rights, but there was no price fixing I can see, Just the same price all games came out with.

If you compare NCAA to NFL, that isn't the same game. Sure they may play the same, but I am not a fan of playing NCAA football games. I am more into NFL. So even if price was different I would still pick Madden.

My comment was not specific to Madden, exclusive rights is were the problems can arise and why cant someone make another Madden 2012, EA's Madden 2012, Activision's Madden 2012.