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

nytimes.com

61–70 of 95 posts

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

#61
post #6
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

Alternatively, they will allow players to load external databases of teams, logos and footballers from a file, and the community will do the rest of the job. This kind of stuff has been tried before and it's usually pretty safe, legally speaking.

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

#62
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likeness presumably, but fantasy football doesn’t run into a problem with player names. So while companies would get sued over names it seems like they would also likely win. That said, graphics are at a point where player likeness is meaningful as is team jerseys. So customers would presumably prefer the licensed product.

Fantasy football is dealing in statistics. Using a persons name in your game implies they endorse your game, the players associations manage this stuff pretty closely.

> Using a persons name in your game implies they endorse your game

I am sure that argument would be made, but I don’t think customers actually think that. Especially if the game makes it clear it’s unofficial.

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

#63
All other points aside, it is truly astounding that the non-profit organisation FIFA requires billions of dollars just to license out their name to a video game.

If FIFA really is a non-profit, why is there a need for all this money?

Some context:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/30/fifa-profits-sep...

>So where does this money go? Well last year [2014] Fifa paid out £26.1 million in salaries to its top 13 executives.

>The organisation does not say how much it pays Sepp Blatter or other senior officials but "compensation is in line with major international and Swiss companies".

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

#64
post #59
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption? Such a dishonest comparison. One was nepotistically involved in day to day operations of the American government, put into diplomatic situations in an official capacity, even attempted to be named World Bank President. The other is completely divorced from politics and uses his name to sell artwork This kind of false equivalence does great service to the worst-o…

I am quite upset about the war ending in the worst way possible. You talk like the war in Afghanistan "ending" was a good thing probably because you get to live far, far away from yet another region destabilised by US hands. Joe thought Afghans were too dumb to understand backwards induction, and put a nice islamic state over there. Military industry would sure be mad about the existence of new righteous wars to be f…

The idea that the war could have been ended any other way is Military Industrial Complex propaganda. It's a complete and total fabrication that relies on the ignorance of people to believe that just a little more war and death would magically create a stable government.

The Afghan government was always going to collapse to the Taliban. 10 years ago, 10 years from now.

There was no end to this war where the Afghan government resisted the Taliban.

And now you claim that the military industrial complex is happy about the end of the war, when they used their control of the media to throw a two month long tantrum? Ridiculous.

How funny that you in one breath bemoan "region destabilized by American hands" and in the next promote neo-colonialism and forever war. You stand for nothing. The Afghan people deserve to rule themselves and if they want an Islamic state, then your bigotry against their self-determination speaks volumes about your concepts of colonialism and your desire to be their white man savior.

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

#65
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.

From my experience with the NHL franchise. If you're a casual or light player of the game you probably won't notice a difference except for the time rosters. But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change any…

Some of us still play NHL94.. http://www.nhl94online.com/

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

#66
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience with the NHL franchise. If you're a casual or light player of the game you probably won't notice a difference except for the time rosters. But if you play the game on a regular basis you will also notice the new feature or the thing they've improved. If you play FIFA 2015 and then play FIFA 2022 you'll notice a massive difference yet people will have been saying for years that they don't change any…

Some of us still play NHL94.. http://www.nhl94online.com/

That game is how I got into ice hockey.

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

#67
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fantasy football is dealing in statistics. Using a persons name in your game implies they endorse your game, the players associations manage this stuff pretty closely.

> Using a persons name in your game implies they endorse your game I am sure that argument would be made, but I don’t think customers actually think that. Especially if the game makes it clear it’s unofficial.

I think there were court cases on infringement around thirty years ago, when games were being made where they'd just license Shaq or Ken Griffey Jr and the rest of the names would be fake.

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

#68
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not their stats that have protection, it's their likeness and names that require a license to use. Several games in the past have featured real rosters with fake names to get around this.

Likeness presumably, but fantasy football doesn’t run into a problem with player names. So while companies would get sued over names it seems like they would also likely win. That said, graphics are at a point where player likeness is meaningful as is team jerseys. So customers would presumably prefer the licensed product.

I don't think it's really been tested legally, but during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, there were a handful of (strikebreakers') names that the players' association got replaced in games.

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

#69
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Alternatively, they will allow players to load external databases of teams, logos and footballers from a file, and the community will do the rest of the job. This kind of stuff has been tried before and it's usually pretty safe, legally speaking.

the problem with that approach is abundantly clear in the sales figure gap between PES and FIFA.

Most people are lazy and don't want to bother with locating files, patching games, dealing with borked patches and so on.

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

#70
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure there are a lot of people my age that remember EA extremely fondly for the things they did decades ago. M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold and Archon and many others were the best games some of us grew up on. I haven’t been involved in gaming except for the 2 I occasionally play with my kids so I’m blissfully unaware of anything EA has done recently. But back then, they were really amazing. https://www.euroga…

Personally, I remember them screwing up Westwood games or what feels like them screwing up Westwood games. It feels like they totally ruined: * C&C * Theme Park (entire theme franchise, theme hospital too) * Dungeon Keeper

I wish EA had spun Generals out into a separate IP, instead of treating its customers like idiots, with a result that was unfair to everyone: C&C fans didn’t get a follow up to RA2, and Generals got a ton of hate for reasons that had nothing to do with the actual game, which was a very good RTS with interesting factions and fun / clever mechanics.
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