The truth about EA Sports..

[futurefields]

EA Sports is like the proverbial kid on the basketball court who loses the first game, takes ball and goes home. But unlike other kids EA Sports comes back the next day with deed to the basketball court "only we play here now" lol..

 

[mmntech]

EA has always been like this going right back to when Trip Hawkins was running the show. They're a very bullish company. It's a smart business move really. Anybody can make a football game, but only Madden has the rights to use NFL teams and players.

 

[smackababy]

The truth about EA Sports: Fifa is the best soccer series, and Fifa 14 is the best soccer game. Nearly half their developers work in EA Sports, I believe.

 

[Topweasel]

The truth about EA Sports: Fifa is the best soccer series, and Fifa 14 is the best soccer game. Nearly half their developers work in EA Sports, I believe.

Higher. Go to the wiki pages. EA is about 9.3k people. 8k of them work in EA sports.

 

[cmdrdredd]

EA gets a bad rap for sports games because they monopolized the NFL license and forced out the competition that was actually producing better games and churn out releases that are almost mirrors of the previous year and their NBA games are pathetic next to the competition.

Those are the two main things people think about when someone says EA sports. Madden and NBA Live. I know there was a loyal fanbase for Pro Evolution Soccer and some claimed it was better than Fifa. I don't know because I have played neither.

Their NHL games still compete well with the 2k series.

 

[smackababy]

EA gets a bad rap for sports games because they monopolized the NFL license and forced out the competition that was actually producing better games and churn out releases that are almost mirrors of the previous year and their NBA games are pathetic next to the competition.

Those are the two main things people think about when someone says EA sports. Madden and NBA Live. I know there was a loyal fanbase for Pro Evolution Soccer and some claimed it was better than Fifa. I don't know because I have played neither.

Their NHL games still compete well with the 2k series.

Pro Evolution Soccer is not better than Fifa. For awhile, it was the only PC available soccer game, so it had to be made. However, now Fifa is on PC as well, and it is still the best. Even more so with Fifa 14 and Fifa 15.

 

[TeknoBug]

Unfortunately NFL and NHL games are only available on console and only from EA Sports, I still play them. At least NBA and FIFA are available from different devs (and NBA 2K14 is actually better than NBA Live 14).

I was disappointed when I got NHL 09 for PC, it still used the Playstation 2 engine from 2002, while the console versions looked way better. I still play Madden 08 for PC from time to time (Madden 04 PC was the best).

 

[cmdrdredd]

Unfortunately NFL and NHL games are only available on console and only from EA Sports, I still play them. At least NBA and FIFA are available from different devs (and NBA 2K14 is actually better than NBA Live 14).

I was disappointed when I got NHL 09 for PC, it still used the Playstation 2 engine from 2002, while the console versions looked way better. I still play Madden 08 for PC from time to time (Madden 04 PC was the best).

Yeah the NBA 2k14 engine from Xbox 360 was used for the PC while the ps4 and xb1 got a new engine.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah the NBA 2k14 engine from Xbox 360 was used for the PC while the ps4 and xb1 got a new engine.

Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[futurefields]

Its not even matching the 360 versions - PC lacks ambient occlusion and self shadowing.

 

[Homerboy]

While I'm not an advocate for EA, please remember it was the NFL that put the licensing up for bids. EA won the licensing.

 

[cmdrdredd]

While I'm not an advocate for EA, please remember it was the NFL that put the licensing up for bids. EA won the licensing.

It wasn't the NFL who made EA release bad games though. They got into a habit of not fixing collision issues, bad animations, among other things.

Speak of the devil I just bought FIFA 14 for Xbox one from target for $45. They price matched their online price for me. I am admittedly not a soccer fan but I tried the demo and it wasn't that bad, I might have fun with this game though. A buddy of mine is into soccer so he might get into it and we can do some matches.

 

[mmntech]

Anybody notice they got caught red handed charging for demos on the Xbox One?
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/4/5870363/xbox-one-ea-charges-for-fifa-14-ea-sports-ufc-demos-error

Claiming it was a "pricing error".

 

[cmdrdredd]

Was that only in Australia? The article wasn't clear

 

[mmntech]

Australia and the US I believe. The screenshots I saw on Reddit all had pricing in US dollars.
Only Xbox One was affected.

I can't help but wonder if this was a genuine error, or testing the waters to see if anybody would actually pay up.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Has to be error on MS part. Here is what I gathered from looking closer at this situation. These demos were already free for months prior, PSN was 100% unaffected, MS controls the store like any retailer would and publishers can set wholesale pricing, this occurred almost immediately after a system update.

 

[master_shake_]

the real truth about EA Sports
























ITS IN THE GAME!

 

[Sixguns]

 

[Sonikku]

EA gets a bad rap for sports games because they monopolized the NFL license and forced out the competition that was actually producing better games and churn out releases that are almost mirrors of the previous year and their NBA games are pathetic next to the competition.

The free market at work.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The free market at work.

It's not a free market when there is only one player who is locked into a monopoly. That's like saying the cable companies operate in a free market. They don't, it's sponsored monopolies or in some cases oligopolies.

If it was a real free market, competition would not be locked out from creating products.

 

[Topweasel]

It's not a free market when there is only one player who is locked into a monopoly. That's like saying the cable companies operate in a free market. They don't, it's sponsored monopolies or in some cases oligopolies.

If it was a real free market, competition would not be locked out from creating products.

No its a free market where the NFL decides its better for their brand to have a single licensed product and sells that to the company willing to throw the most resources at it.

If the NFL thought their brand was better with two different products or they could make more money off of it they would have. That's the free market at work.

 

[cmdrdredd]

No its a free market where the NFL decides its better for their brand to have a single licensed product and sells that to the company willing to throw the most resources at it.

If the NFL thought their brand was better with two different products or they could make more money off of it they would have. That's the free market at work.

That's not free market for the games industry, the consumers, and its developers at all. When competition is hindered by artificial means (in this case exclusive licensing) it isn't a completely free market. Yes the NFL is free to do business this way but by removing competition the game industry no longer operates in a free market for producing football games. We all know that games that don't use player names and real teams won't sell.

Whenever someone is locked out from competing with another company, that is not a free market anymore. In a real free market developers would be able to license the NFL names and logos for their games as well and the consumers would choose the best one according to each game's merits and the sales figures would show which one was the favored title overall. If the competing games turned out to be lower quality or sell less then so be it. At least we would actually have a choice and probably get better football games as a result. We had this before and it was much better. The NFL is just too greedy for their own good anymore and that's what they wanted, someone to pay them big money for the license. Neither EA or the NFL really care about the quality of the product when there is no other option anymore. If someone wants a football game they have to buy Madden and the NFL gets paid no matter what.

It's crap, the games have been crap for years, and will continue to be crap until there is some competition to light a fire under their ass.

Some examples of poor quality in Madden

Pre Determined Fumble recovery including the ball jumping from the ground and sticks to the defender's hand, clipping through the arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co-qVJ4-UOY

Synchronized receiver and defender making for awkward looking interception
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFnAu0Z2C8E

obvious tackling Issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9TsoB-K4dE

poor AI and motion shifting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwdtx6Dc7k0

 

[lamedude]

Non NFL football games do exist you know.

 

[Sulaco]

Non NFL football games do exist you know.

Right.

Two of those linked are arcade "football" games the same way NBA Jam is a replacement for NBA 2K.

The other, while better and actually a "sim", is 6 years old.
Those are simply not alternatives for anyone looking for an NFL-licensed simulation.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Right.

Two of those linked are arcade "football" games the same way NBA Jam is a replacement for NBA 2K.

The other, while better and actually a "sim", is 6 years old.
Those are simply not alternatives for anyone looking for an NFL-licensed simulation.

Exactly...and non NFL games as I said...do not sell the same, period. People want to play as their team, taking their hometown to the playoffs and the Superbowl. People don't want to play as some Joe Schmoe on a fictional team called the Atlanta pit bulls or something.