Consumer battle for Madden Continues

A lawsuit filed in a California court against EA for the Madden Monopoly is still going strong.


Remember NFL 2K5. NFL 2K5 outsold madden by a huge margin so EA turned around and purchase an exclusive license from the NFL and its Player Associations to become the only game company to distribute and make NFL titles. This practically left out all other developers from making any NFL titles including Midway (now part of Warner Bros.)  with their NFL Blitz titles and 2KSports with their 2K sports series. The reason NFL 2K5 outsold Madden is because the game only cost $20 at launch and it had way more features than Madden.

Ever since then Madden has been the only true NFL title. Other companies have tried to create their own football series of games but have failed.Titles such as Blitz: The League, All Pro Football 2K8, etc. Or rather a while back someone files a law suit against EA claiming that the company is committing acts of monopoly and charging consumer an unfair amount for the title.

"Defendant Electronic Arts entered into a series of exclusive licenses with the National Football League ... which plaintiffs claim foreclosed competition in the alleged football videogame market," which allegedly allowed EA to overprice its alleged football products.

Now I am not defending EA by any mean but I think that this should not hold up in court. First of all Blitz: The League and All Pro Football each cost $59.99 at launch. I could understand that for Blitz: The League but for All Pro Football which was a 2K title, the same company who only charged $19.99 for NFL 2K5 charging $59.99 for the title doesn't hold up. Why didn't 2K put the title up for $19.99 at launch. 

Also EA wasn't the only company to overcharge for their games. When the Xbox 360 was first released in 2005 all game companies were charging $59.99 for their titles. So claiming that EA is overcharging consumers is a bit of a stretch and in reality the consumer filing the law suit should be suing the games industry as a whole not just EA.


The only thing EA is responsible for is for purchasing exclusive licenses for the NFL but other game companies could have pursued the same if they would have bid for the license. It went to the highest bidder and in this case it was EA and it was the NFL's decision to go exclusive. They could have easily say No and continued to serve other game companies. The NBA also the chance to go exclusive to a certain company but they choose not to.


So who is at fault here? If you ask me everyone is guilty so filing a law suit against a company for something when everyone is responsible for the overcharging is just pure insanity. If you have an opinion on this please leave a comment but my opinion is that I hope this case just gets thrown out of the court.


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