Fuck exclusive sports games.

[DrRay11]

Competition.

Isn't that what sports are about?

Sweet Lord, why have you taken away what are, in my opinion, two of the very best sports games on the market? NFL 2k and MVP Baseball have ceased to exist, thanks to EA's greedy marketing schemes of "Oh, shit, NFL 2k is a pretty damn good game. Let's just shut them out instead of upgrading our game at their pace."

NFL 2k was the most pleasurable football experience I've had. Countless hours of fun there, gone for what could be forever. Now, Madden isn't bad either, but damnit, this is a free country and I deserve to have a fucking choice.

MVP Baseball -- not a baseball purist's dream, but then again, there just aren't that many baseball purists out there anymore. Albeit that small bit unrealistic, this was a damn fun game with the controls tinkered to near perfection. Now 2k has exclusive rights (unless you own PS2) and they produce the worst baseball game that I've ever played in MLB 2k6 for the 360. OK, so when it works, it's not all bad... But what fun is it when you can't play past the second inning before it freezes... every game? They better fucking fix this, and fast, or there will be chaos. The game isn't that great as it is, with shoddy control of baserunning and fielding (expect a full review of this game sans all the cursing from me as soon as I am able to fucking play it).

Fuck exclusive sports rights. Monopoly is a terrible word.

Compete.

[Black Dynamite]

this isnt EA's fault. If you're EA and the NFL is willing to sell away its rights. You jump on it. But its sega's fault. They were the first to cut corners by signing they special deal with espn that gave them the freedom to charge lower than anybody. They opened up the special deals market. It came back to bite them.

[DrRay11]

To say that 2k was the first to use the ESPN license is "open up" that way of doing things is false. There've been a lot of agreements, like THQ/wrestling and what have you. That magnitude of a deal is so much less than what EA did. And I'm not "blaming" it on EA, I'm just saying that they opened the doors to such massive licensing agreements that could shake the grounds of gaming as such and therefore inhibit on creative freedom in the video game realm. Again, I'm not blaming it all on EA, I'm saying it's stupid how they handled the oncoming of 2k. By your logic, if both the NFL and MLB licenses were "available," wouldn't EA have jumped on both. Whatever though, I rest my case. This frustration was brought on by 2k freezing constantly and my having nowhere else to turn.

[BigggChris04]

YES, I LOVE EA VS 2K TOPICS!!!!!
...
Just to let you know, EA didn't create a monopoly
...
I love"d" both EA and 2K and went back and forth with arguments on which was better
...
but we cant really do that anymore because of what EA did
...
I miss those days

[Black Dynamite]

To say that 2k was the first to use the ESPN license is "open up" that way of doing things is false. There've been a lot of agreements, like THQ/wrestling and what have you. That magnitude of a deal is so much less than what EA did. And I'm not "blaming" it on EA, I'm just saying that they opened the doors to such massive licensing agreements that could shake the grounds of gaming as such and therefore inhibit on creative freedom in the video game realm. Again, I'm not blaming it all on EA, I'm saying it's stupid how they handled the oncoming of 2k. By your logic, if both the NFL and MLB licenses were "available," wouldn't EA have jumped on both. Whatever though, I rest my case. This frustration was brought on by 2k freezing constantly and my having nowhere else to turn.

Yea they would've jumped on both if they could've got them. Your idea that its so much less on magnitude is severely underrating the market. slashing 20 dollars off every game is a serious blow to EA. They put too much money into their games to consistently charge that. And once again the NFL sold EA the license. they didnt force them to. And what are you talking bout on this MLB 2k6 being the only game? Oh wait you're stuck with Xbox only ...Mwahahahahahahahaha ROTFLMAO and then some. MLB THE Show>>>MLB 2k6. MLB and Hockey are the only two sports 989 seems to get right. Also the two sports i really hate 2k on.

Again, I'm not blaming it all on EA, I'm saying it's stupid how they handled the oncoming of 2k

Well if you call that stupid then you dont understand business. And as far as them not getting baseball. they couldnt get it in time exclusive. But they tried. and they tried the NBA too. But the NBA unlike the NFL is smart enough to say fuck exclusive rights. It goes back to my original point. If its available, you'd be stupid not to buy the rights if you can afford 'em. The NFL was dumb as nails for selling away their rights. If 2k had known they could do that, they woulda done the same.

To say that 2k was the first to use the ESPN license is "open up" that way of doing things is false. There've been a lot of agreements, like THQ/wrestling and what have you.

You're comparing the value of WWE to the NFL? Now whose being silly? The WWE isnt big enough to give its license to everybody. Its not a sports market technically. And its ratings share doesnt touch the NFL*google XFL*. "Real" sports licenses and "sports entertainment" Licenses are two different things. Theres nothing false about that ESPN deal starting shit off. you just say that because you enjoyed paying 20 dollars less. But that marketing money espn paid to cover that 20 was way less than EA could afford to do for every game. The deal gave NFL 2k an unfair advantage from the jump. Only one of two things to do.

1.)try to do like they did and set up a similar deal with some other sports channel willing to give up all that money with a Walt Disney level checkbook.(not that easy and why try to be like sega rather than do it bigger)

2) Come up with something bigger to keep your marketing edge. I can't see any reason to blame EA for practicing good business. And oppurtunity presented itself to get the license and they took it. If the NFL does like the NBA did and says no, then we arent talking about this. Its not like EA offered so much money that the broke NFL had to give them the license to survive. the NFL is rich as fuck. the deal makes no sense for them and plenty for EA. I totally blame the NFL. its their call. too bad for sega. but 2k football never completely impressed me anyways.

[DrRay11]

You're right by saying it's smart from a business standpoint for EA, I am just so frustrated right now with MLB 2k6, and if I hadn't sold my PS2 for money, I'd definitely have the show instead.

Also, I'm in no way comparing the WWE to the NFL, I was comparing WWE to a license such as ESPN. And I know it's not technically a monopoly for NFL games, but it's damn close.

You guys are disagreeing that exclusive sports games suck? All's I want is to have a choice, that's all I'm saying.

[Black Dynamite]

You guys are disagreeing that exclusive sports games suck? All's I want is to have a choice, that's all I'm saying.

I agree. As much as i wasnt impressed by 2k6 football. I enjoyed the minor competition they gave to Madden. Pushed Madden to be better. Its unfortunate that the NFL sold their rights. Gotta take that up with the NFL though. Hopefully they wont keep the license any longer than their current deal.

[bangpow]

Gotta take that up with the NFL though.

I agree 100%.

EA did what they had to do by obtaining the NFL llicense. In fact, I read an interview shortly after the deal was done with one of the guys from EA and he said they even they weren't sure that EA was going to get the license. I guess DISNEY was making a strong push to get the license. We would've all been screwed then.

Now, 2K Sports obtaining the ESPN license had nothing to do with them selling the game dirt cheap. Their marketing plan backfired, I believe. They were just trying to get people to actually play their game and they figured they would make is so cheap that people would want to try it out. I think it worked to a point as I think they probably would've sold more games this past year if EA didn't gobble up the license. I liked ESPN NFL 2K5, I thought it did a lot of things right and had some great features, like online leagues, and the presentation was top notch. But it was not the end-all-be-all like some people think.

QB spy did not work
The DB play wasn't all that great
The CPU trades in a franchise were ridiculous
No NCAA game to import rosters from

That being said, I thought it was really starting to gain momentum and it provided a great change of pace for me when Madden would start to really piss me off. I guess there's been rumblings that 2K Sports has been going around scooping up some retired players and maybe coming out with an NFL "Legends" type game since, but there hasn't been too much info on that.

[bangpow]

You know what else, though?

People think EA is bad for snagging the NFL license because it took the NFL 2K* series away, but what 2K Sports has done with the MLB series takes it one step farther by totally eliminating ALL MLB games on the PC.

Since they don't make any games for the PC, PC gamers are now totally devoid of any new MLB game. Sure, there's MVPMods.com out there and all, but using mods can only go so far with a gam.

[UxKa]

how bout barry bonds wanting his own fees? instead we get a giants outfielder who is fictitious (and white) but with the proper stats anyway. not a big deal as i dont like him anyway, but it fits in to the license discussion.


(i hope the game youre talking about is the same way, maybe bonds is in it, but the last couple games i played didnt have him in there)