Lawyers Didn't Intend to Kill EA's NCAA Games

[Nimcha]

Yeah, I'm definitely sure they didn't intend to kill their parasitical little gravy train here.

How were they to know EA was so abhorred by the thought of paying money for use of someone's likeness?

Oh, right. American company.

EA pays a lot of money for use of people's likeness for all their other sports games (of which there are a lot).

 

[FoolKiller]

So who was against the game on the college side? The organisation(s) that run the sport or the actual players? If the players already do it for nothing as amatuer athletes wouldn't they be happy with a free or discounted copy of the game or something? I have no idea how US college sports work, we have nothing like it all here so I have no experience of it.

I think the problem was already that the NCAA makes lots of money exploiting the students through this manner. EA got caught in the cross-fire as students were upset that their likenesses and names were being used well after their departure from the NCAA to promote stuff, even 40 years later. Now think about what that feels like and what it must feel like knowing another company can hop on board and also use you to make money without giving you anything. That is what this ended up being.

 

[Something Amyss]

EA pays a lot of money for use of people's likeness for all their other sports games (of which there are a lot).

And yet, confronted to here, they opt instead to pull the game.

 

[Nimcha]

EA pays a lot of money for use of people's likeness for all their other sports games (of which there are a lot).

And yet, confronted to here, they opt instead to pull the game.

Indeed, so that couldn't have been the issue.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

...If they do that, what in the bloody blazes is the point of using the NCAA name? Seriously, lawyers, you are really stretching there.

If they kept the teams, and all the other trappings of NCAA football, but randomized the players, I bet there'd still be a big market for the game. And that way they wouldn't owe anyone except the NCAA itself.

Granted, it would get in the way of EA's "change the rosters and call it a new version" gravy train. But they could still put out a new one every year if they were actually improving the game in the meantime.

...I'm pretty sure using the teams would fall under the "no likenesses" part. Sure, they could use only the trappings, as you put it, of NCAA football, but at that point, when you don't have the players or the teams, why bother even using the name?

 

[Blaster395]

40 million is quite a big hit there. That's probably a million sales worth.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

...I'm pretty sure using the teams would fall under the "no likenesses" part. Sure, they could use only the trappings, as you put it, of NCAA football, but at that point, when you don't have the players or the teams, why bother even using the name?

The NCAA (and by extension, the schools), has its own deal with EA. The issue here is with the players represented.

Even though they aren't named, EA matched many other stats (height, weight, jersey number, etc) with the actual players at those positions. For example, the current Notre Dame quarterback is Tommy Rees (6'3", 215lb, #11). If they released the next NCAA game with an unnamed quaterback who was 6'1", 195 lb, and number 7, Rees probably wouldn't have grounds for a lawsuit. At least not based on this ruling.

Oh, OK. Sorry, I didn't realize it was just the players that was at issue. And really, EA was doing that? What the hell? Did they think they could get away with that?

 

[Antari]

Perhaps EA will be more careful in the future about exploiting people who have the money to sue them. Then again this is EA we're talking about here. I'm surprised they didn't try to use the EULA no contest law system on them as I'm sure some of the players own EA games.

 

[Amir Kondori]

The first part is the only important part! If EA wants to use the NCAA logo and their player's likeness then they need to pay up. This is just EA being cheap and after not getting their way they are taking their ball and going home.

This kind of stuff is why I hate EA.

It's not that simple at all. If the lawyers and students are demanding $40 million or something ridiculous for their image then there's no way EA can make that game. EA have always been happy to pay licensing fees to atheletes providing it's not so much that there's no way they can make a profit.

Without knowing how much money they're demanding, you cannot just blame EA for this. And in fact, EA are almost certainly not to blame. Do you think if the demands were reasonable enough that EA could make money off it they'd turn around and say 'nah we'd prefer not to make money at all just so we can be dicks to students'?

They're a corporation, they're amoral not immoral. They're never going to give up all their money to heal the sick, they're never going to give up all their money to screw someone over

You are waay out in left field on this one. The NCAA has done lots of licensing deals in other areas with other goods, the 40 million figure is a starting off point, then they get together and negotiate something lower.
EA thought they could have it for nothing, were not able to get away with it, and now are scrapping the whole thing to strengthen their bargaining position later, if they do decide it is worth it to them to pursue a deal.
The way these deals work is that both parties try and start from a position of strength and work out a deal that hopefully represents the value of both sides. NCAA certainly would love to see the money from an EA sports game.
I personally would like to see another contender come in and scoop that lic. like EA has with the NFL.

 

[aelreth]

Sounds like someone killed the golden goose.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

"Or [they could] pay the students, which they didn't really agree to," ...Any reason you cut off the quote before the most important statement of the actual quote? You know, the actual point of the case was able using players' identity without actually paying them or giving some form of compensation?

Yeah, 40 million dollars. That's an insane amount of money.

They would have to sell 800,000 EXTRA copies of the game at full price just to make up for that kind of cash; on a game that has only sold 1,140,000 copies total. Like they are supposed to magically just increase their sales by 70% in order to retain profitability?

For that much money they could add a full 400 extra employees(programmers, writers, gameplay designers, artists) to any project they wanted. That's the salaries of the entire Dragon Age: Inquisition team for an entire year if not longer.

 

[BrotherRool]

You are waay out in left field on this one. The NCAA has done lots of licensing deals in other areas with other goods, the 40 million figure is a starting off point, then they get together and negotiate something lower.
EA thought they could have it for nothing, were not able to get away with it, and now are scrapping the whole thing to strengthen their bargaining position later, if they do decide it is worth it to them to pursue a deal.
The way these deals work is that both parties try and start from a position of strength and work out a deal that hopefully represents the value of both sides. NCAA certainly would love to see the money from an EA sports game.
I personally would like to see another contender come in and scoop that lic. like EA has with the NFL.

So both companies are negotiating to achieve a price they would like and you hate EA because EA are sacrificing a games worth of profits to achieve a better negotiating position?

You of all people should know this whole lawyers statement was just a publicity stunt to try and put pressure on EA for not making the game and weakening EA's negotiating position. They were more than willing to not have these games be made if it'll eventually force EA to cough up more