EA Sports

EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real comentators such as Ron Barr and John Madden, soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing games such as FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NCAA Football. EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game reflects the aim of the early games to portrait reality as best as the technology would allow.

Exclusivity deals

In 2003 EA purchased the license to NASCAR, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames. Many loyal fans of the NASCAR Racing Series games by Papyrus resent EA for that and currently boycott all EA games. More recently, after purchasing the license of the UEFA Champions League (previously owned by Eidos) in November 2004, a month later EA announced an exclusive deal (rumoured to be worth around US $1B) with the NFL and the NFL Players Association (Players Inc.) making them the sole provider of licensed NFL video games until 2010, which effectively removes the competition from the market, who will not be allowed to feature real NFL players or teams in their games. It is considered that one of the main reasons behind the deal is related with Take Two's aggressive pricing with their ESPN-licensed series, which were retailed at budget price, about half the price of a regular EA Sports game. It is believed that the same move was attempted in late 2004 on the NBA, but it was refused and afterwards EA executives denied making any offer to the basketball association. However, their "exclusive spree" continued on January 2005 when a deal with the Arena Football League (AFL) was announced, but with less impact on the market, as the license was previously vacant. A new deal was done just days after the AFL deal, when former SEGA/Take Two partners ESPN signed a 15-year deal with EA Sports. In 2005, EA also completed an exclusivity deal with the NCAA, allowing EA to produce the only officially licensed college football game.

Related Topics:
NASCAR - Papyrus - Infogrames - UEFA Champions League - Eidos - November 2004 - Month later - US $ - B - NFL - Players Inc. - 2010 - Take Two - ESPN - Budget price - NBA - Basketball - January 2005 - Arena Football League

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The only real loss of these deals was of the MLB series, which went for five years (starting 2005) to Take Two.

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