Electronic Arts may have to give up its exclusive rights to develop NCAA Football games when its current agreement with the NCAA ends in 2014, as part of a proposed settlement in a lawsuit that dates back in 2008.
A number of consumers originally filed a suit against EA four years ago, alleging that the publisher had entered into exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations in the United States as a means of creating a monopoly in the sector.
Attorneys representing these consumers claim that EA has now agreed to a proposed settlement, filed on July 19, 2012, that will see the company letting the current agreement lapse in 2014, with no renewal for at least five years.
The proposed agreement sent to Gamasutra also states that EA will not sign an exclusive deal with the Arena Football League during this period either, meaning that other developers and publishers will potentially be able to get in on the act.
U.S. consumers who purchased any EA football game during the last six years would also be entitled to small payouts of $6.79 or $1.95 as part of this proposed agreement, with a $27 million fund set up to accommodate the claims. The settlement has been filed, but must be approved before it is made final.
"After more than four years of hard-fought litigation, we have reached a settlement that we strongly believe is fair to consumers,” noted attorney Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, the law firm representing consumers. "We look forward to moving this process forward and asking the court to approve this settlement, which we think is in the best interests of the class."
This isn't the only lawsuit that EA is currently handling. Another lawsuit filed in 2009 claims EA colluded with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Collegiate Licensing Company to have players sign away their rights to have their images, likenesses, and names used in video games such as the NCAA Football series. A federal judge refused Electronic Arts' request to dismiss the class action lawsuit in May.
This is great news but it comes many years too late to save the 2K Sports series of football games that was pushed out of relevance by EAs exclusive license. I was working for 2K at the time and EAs silly-expensive exclusive deal created a panic, We fought to get the MLB exclusive deal, secured it, and then EA and 2K grappled over a NBA exclusive deal. Wisely, the NBA decided that more developers would mean better games and happier fans and refused to sign exclusively with anyone. The leagues that signed exlusive deals (MLB, NFL, PGA, Nascar, etc) really screwed the fans in the end just so they could get some money up front. In the NFL deal though, it WAS a LOT of money ;P
The problem lies in the fact no one is really developing a football game this day. Even if 2K grabs the NCAA license, they will have to form a team and improve over software created almost ten years ago or start fresh. I can see how some innovations may appear in the new game but there is no way it will be as polished as the latest EA NCAA game.
That's okay, two teams competing will probably end up with much better college football games in several years than the current "lets add some in-game advertising with a few gimmicks and ship it again".
Its about time we got a new NCAA game that has actual improvements.