Steve's Picks: The stories of 2004 - #2

Number 2 on the list brings us to a game company. A company rapidly becoming so insidious with their business activities, that they make Microsoft look almost pure.

If you can't guess who the company is, you obviously haven't been paying attention recently.

Number 2...

I have never been a fan of Electronic Arts. I don?t like their business practices, I don?t like the way they treat the consumer? In short, I just don?t like them, never have. The decision was perhaps cemented when. about seven years ago, I picked up a piece of software. ?Requires Windows 3.1 or higher? it said. So I bought it. When I got home and opened it, there was a slip of paper. ?This product will not work on Windows 95.? So while technically accurate, with the game also working on Windows 3.11, which is ?higher? than 3.1, the packaging was deliberately misleading. The store wouldn?t take it back as it was opened. EA?s answer? Ship it to them on my dime so they could send me a sealed one to return to the store. Given the title only cost a few bucks, it wasn?t worth it. The biggest issue for me was the principle of the thing. It highlighted everything I?ve always disliked about Electronic Arts.

Fast forward to this year. EA announce my number three pick, the subscription model for Madden? Then a few months later, we hear that the NFL and EA have signed an exclusive deal for five years. ANYONE who knows EA knows this is a very bad thing. When EA have no competition with their sports titles, they stop trying. The only loser from all this is going to be the consumer. The same people who are defending EA now will be the ones bitching the loudest come Madden 2008 (or whatever the game will be called, given they?re supposedly dumping Madden) when it?s practically the same as Madden 2006, with very minor revisions and, of course, the obligatory roster update.

EA?s business practice, while legal, is bad for the consumer. The magnificent ESPN series has been forced out of the frame. The first truly viable competition in years to the NFL crown, crushed in one swift move. ESPN won?t want to be associated with a title that has no NFL logos, names etc? And most people won?t buy the title because it doesn?t have the NFL logos, names etc? Meaning they may as well all quit now. Even at $20 their sales just got massacred. EA has used their financial muscle to beat the opposition into submission. Same happened with NASCAR. EA made an offer that couldn?t be matched, and thus are the only company making NASCAR games now.

Electronic Arts control a very large sector of the market as it is. It?s only in the wake of the NFL rights deal that I?ve taken a good look on the shelves and see just HOW much of the shelf space is taken up by EA titles. EA truly are the Microsoft of gaming. EA Sports is just one small part of that dominance. ?Challenge Everything? should be changed to ?Own Everything?.

They?ve also, in recent weeks, tried to get the NBA exclusive rights, but from what I read, the NBA told them to take a hike. Nice to see one league do the decent thing. The MLB rights are ?safe? too, since another developer just signed a new deal, meaning no exclusivity there thanfully.

Me, I?ll stick to playing Winning Eleven, ESPN NFL, ESPN NHL etc. Because remember, with this dominance going the way it is, soon they?ll own it all, because you can?t spell EARTH without EA?