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FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

nytimes.com

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Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#11

Post by tut-urut-utut »

vultour wrote: post #2

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage.

250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”.

AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right to extract oil from the ground to the owner. Why would this case be different.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#13

Post by djmips »

vultour wrote: post #2

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

That's an ignorant take. The game has a lot of work put in every year to all aspects.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#14

Post by pg_bot »

Bayart wrote: post #9
harry8 wrote: post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

> Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA has the approval of nation-states and there's massive cultural capital invested in FIFA, especially regarding the World Cup. Nobody's leaving it, especially not players. FIFA also doesn't have leagues of its own. > EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

> EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash.

You sure about that? EA's revenue for the last fiscal year was 5.6 billion dollars. FIFA's revenue for the last 4 years is about equal to that dollar amount. There's a lot more money in video games than people think.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#15

Post by djmips »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #11
vultour wrote: post #2

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right t…

Sounds more like extortion. EAC built this franchise from the ground up since 1993 and FIFA had nothing to do with it other than four letters.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#16

Post by MarkCole »

namdnay wrote: post #6
harry8 wrote: post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

And the following year FIFA will give the licence to another developer, any everyone will switch to that. PES was a far better game than FIFA, but everyone wanted to play with their favourite players and teams. There's no way EA will kill that cash cow

The article mentions that the FIFA license only includes rights to the name, logo and rights to the World Cup.

The player and teams name, likenesses and logos are governed by licenses with other organisations.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#17

Post by Retric »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #11
vultour wrote: post #2

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right t…

I am not sure player names and statistics are actually protected though. So it’s more 250m/year to get access to branding like team logos, FIFA on the box, etc.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#18

Post by siva7 »

harry8 wrote: post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

Comparing the power of FIFA to that of EA would be more akin to that of Walmart and a mom-and-pop store. There is no way EA could win this power struggle. So it remains a mystery what the tactic of EA is.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#19

Post by PedroBatista »

harry8 wrote: post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

> Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game.

That would be next level irony.

EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#20

Post by doikor »

Retric wrote: post #17
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right t…

I am not sure player names and statistics are actually protected though. So it’s more 250m/year to get access to branding like team logos, FIFA on the box, etc.

No its 250m for FIFA and World Cup. All the leagues/teams come from individual contracts with each league and all the players from a contract with FIFPro (International Federation of Professional Footballers) which they just renewed. Basically FIFA wants a huge amount of money for the name FIFA on the box.

Football is not like NFL or NBA where you just make a single contract with the league and you get everything. Instead you have to go and make a lot of contracts all over the place. The system is just much more fragmented.

Basically EA could just not pay this money to FIFA and call the game EA Football or something and have all the same content except the FIFA name on the box and the world cup (and the national teams that come with it)

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