Former Players Sue EA Over Madden

[BohBalmerOsbohs]

I personally love this.

This is something I always wondered about since Madden has historic teams. It sounds like the players from those teams get no compensation. So is that EAs fault for not paying them or the NFLPA for selling all the players as a package to EA? This should be interesting.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/p...madden/1407051
[quote]
Former Bengals running back Tony Davis has filed a class-action suit against EA on behalf of some 6,000 retired NFL pros over the use of player likenesses in Madden NFL 09, reports IGN.

The plaintiffs argue that EA never compensated thousands of retired players whose likenesses were used to fill the rosters for the game's historic teams. The suit alleges that EA "knowingly and intentionally" included the stats, positions, height and weights of retired players, but removed player names and uniform numbers to avoid paying anyone.

"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," the suit reads. "Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are."

It further insists that “EA was fully aware that its use of the retired players’ likenesses was without authorisation and that a license fee was needed." The claim seeks actual, punitive, and statutory damages.[/quote]

[theFRANCHISE]

EA Sports knew fully well what they were doing when it came to the historic rosters; those ratings weren't arbitrarily assigned.

I feel as if EA should've extended the olive branch to these retirees years ago by having a few of them participate in the marketing. Theoretically, had they spent only a couple million to include former players in the process, this never would've gone to court with the support of big-name retirees like Jim Brown. Though the right thing to do would've been to acquire a license to begin with (which would put the NFLPA at fault for lumping retired [i]and[/i] active players into the same package), licensing each individual retired player's likeness would've been difficult, so at least paying out royalties would've been the next best thing.

Or, at the very least, donate annually to the fund that the NFL has for retirees, as well as funds that the NFL has for disabled or handicapped players.

[thewarden86]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' timestamp='1281027040' post='444946']
EA Sports knew fully well what they were doing when it came to the historic rosters; those ratings weren't arbitrarily assigned.

[b]I feel as if EA should've extended the olive branch to these retirees years ago by having a few of them participate in the marketing. [/b]Theoretically, had they spent only a couple million to include former players in the process, this never would've gone to court with the support of big-name retirees like Jim Brown. Though the right thing to do would've been to acquire a license to begin with (which would put the NFLPA at fault for lumping retired [i]and[/i] active players into the same package), licensing each individual retired player's likeness would've been difficult, so at least paying out royalties would've been the next best thing.

Or, at the very least, donate annually to the fund that the NFL has for retirees, as well as funds that the NFL has for disabled or handicapped players.
[/quote]

Bull poop! Madden is $60.00 as it is!
They rarely even use the same number and never a name.
I hope it gets thrown out otherwise, we could be paying $160.00 for the game.

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='thewarden86' timestamp='1281044357' post='445129']
Bull poop! Madden is $60.00 as it is!
They rarely even use the same number and never a name.
I hope it gets thrown out otherwise, we could be paying $160.00 for the game.
[/quote]
It's standard industry practice never to price a game above the usual MSRP for a single-disc release unless there is an accessory or peripheral bundled with it to justify the cost. The industry standard is $59.99, so anything priced above that is simply poor business.

EA makes enough money from the Madden NFL franchise alone that it could afford to use some of their profits from one year's sales to pay for multi-year licensing and marketing. That's not to mention their profits from the NCAA Football series, the Medal of Honor franchise, the Burnout franchise, insert-your-EA-property-here.

[thewarden86]

So you are under the impression that EA will just eat the law suit? Perhaps.
But I can assure you of one thing, [b]IF[/b] they were to continue to have those throwback teams (which they seemed to have done away with) and were required to pay these retirees, it'd be silly to think the price wouldn't go up. These sponges don't absorb losses. Losses are made up for by the consumer.