Former Turbine CEO Talks to WSJ about EA-T2 Monopoly Threat
Former Turbine CEO Talks to WSJ about EA-T2 Monopoly Threat
August 20, 2008
Yesterday we noted a New York Post report on the proposed EA takeover of Take-Two which claimed that the Federal Trade Commission, scheduled to rule on the merger by tomorrow, might require that T2 spin off one or more of its sports franchises so as not to hand EA a stranglehold on the sports segment of the market.
Heidi Moore of the Wall Street Journal digs a little deeper, interviewing Jeff Anderson, CEO of startup online sports gaming service Play Hard Sports (and former Turbine CEO) concerning his view of potential monopoly issues:
It’s in the best interests of consumers to have a choice. I’m always in favor of having more choice in the marketplace. Look at the ESPN football product when it came out. There was no [NFL] exclusivity agreement then. When Take Two changed its price point, people moved toward the Take-Two product and forced EA to reduce its price. You saw how competition can work in the advantage of the consumer.
The question we’re looking at, and what the FTC should be looking at, is whether this will reduce competition. If Take-Two’s sports franchise becomes part of EA, will that influence competition for the better or not? And will it influence prices positively or negatively?
Generally I’m not a fan of monopolies in the gaming world. We’re interested in providing a new choice to consumers. As a gameplayer, we’d love to see great games produced by these studios. And we’d love to see them compete.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
Hell yeah, they should be allowed to have exclusive rights to any sport. Baseball, basketball, soccer, football, cricket, rugby, any racing series, olympics, golf, boxing, and so on. If they want exclusive right to build a game around a certain team, player, or something like that fine, but it should be legally open for anyone to make those games wish approve of the appropiate branding if one wants/cares about the branding of ESPN, NFL, MLB, or anything like that.
EA is doing nothing wrong by having an exclusive on a <i>brand</i>. It is not as if EA is the only company that can make football games, just NFL branded ones. What if EA got the rights to a Michael Phelps Olympics game. Would people still bitch about it? Of course. There is nothing preventing any company from making a football game to compete in the market. Nothing at all. In fact, if a company really wanted to "pull one over"on EA, they could simply allow the player to change uniforms, rename all members of the various teams, allow you to put in your own player stats, etc. Do this, and in a week of "internet time", you would have complete NFL rosters done by the fan community.
You guys are missing the point entirely. No, EA isn't doing anything wrong by buying an exclusive right to a brand, but they DO know EXACTLY what they're doing by going after the NFL. Nobody cares about a damn Michael Phelps video game just like nobody gave a damn when T2 got the baseball licensce, and that's why EA nor T2 hasn't gone after the NBA yet. The fact of the matter is that this country that we live in is an NFL country by majority and EA knows that the Madden franchise is definant income with each installment. They can't get the money they want if they have someone like T2 lowering the price on their football games, thus forcing EA to do the same. It's not about 'oh well you can just go get another exclusive licensce to another sport', when the fact is that nobody cares about the other sports as much as they care about football and EA knows that. Yea, T2 can still make football games just like any other developer, but EA knows that nobody wants to play a football game that has made up, fake or even retired players. They want to play with the players of today and by them getting the NFL licensce they've intentionally put a stranglehold on the competition. They didn't kill the competition, no, that's what they're trying to do right now, but they're only choking it at the moment. If T2 is smart they'll go and get the NBA licensce before EA takes that too.
BooHoo. Free market. People need to get over it. It is not a monopoly, it is a brand licensing deal.
I dont care what you want to call it. EA is a horrible company that makes very few great games and should not be allowed to practice their horrid business practices nad ripping off the idiots of this world who are dumb enough to pay for a demo that should be free, pay for a game that only has a roster update, or pay for a game because it has a certain branding when it sucks.
Way to keep the discussion objective. If EA was producing nothing but crap, it would not be the $4B company it is today. Has EA lost their way from the "old" EA? In some respects, I believe so, but welcome to the world of shareholder owned companies. However, to say that they are ripping off the public is just ridiculous. Nobody is forcing anyone to purchase a single damn thing from EA. I love it when people who don't work in the industry think they know what should be free and what shouldn't. Unless you know the budget for the game being made, it is complete speculation on your part. As well, there are many games that you may think suck that others love and so on.
Can someone here please let me know what horrid business practices EA has? If, by horrid, you mean competitive, then the discussion should stop there. I know many people at EA, all in management/production, and I can not think of a single unethical one in the bunch.
Man you are so bias on this. You're speaking off of emotion because you "know" these people and not as a realist. You're not looking at EA's actions. Whenever someone uses financial power to push a competitor out of a certain area of contest, that person or company isn't being competitive, they're dodging competition. I don't have much of a problem with EA outside of the sports genre because they're forced to compete in those areas since they can't BUY out every developer. But when it comes to sports, I have a big problem because you CAN buy out competition by signing exclusive deals. If EA's name is SOOO big then why would they need to do that? What are they afraid of?? If another developer was going to start signing exclusive deals with sports brands then they would've been done it by now. So basically what they've started is probably something they can't stop in which as soon as they one day let go of the NFL agreement, someone else is probably going to pick it up to stick it back to EA. And don't get me wrong, I won't be cool with that either, even it's T2 that does it.
And enough with the "nobody is forcing you to buy it" crap. We know that nobody is forcing anyone to buy anything. There's a reason why you can hardly find anyone still using windows 95 anymore. People are always going to want to new installment of anything they like with hopes that it's better than the last and every buisness dealer knows that, and THAT'S how they jerk people around if they're the type of people that could care less about quality.
There's a difference between legality and ethics. What Electronic Arts (Oh jesus.. I should not be referring to them with their 'good' name in this day and age) is doing is in effect reducing the quality through sheer buying power. Free market, sure my dear "Anonymous Poster", but it certainly is not condusive at all to supporting the industry as a whole. You'll see less innovation, higher prices, and worse service because EA wouldn't have to give a damn.
We've got it billy! Nowz lets get somez cash by forcing people to buyz dis cheap-ass product.. which.. isn't cheap because.. we're kinda.. charging more.
Brand Licensing Deal..
Anon, consider the fact that NFL IS not the brand, but a specific market. the NFL is so influential that it is ludicrous to believe that it is just a 'brand'. You can't have an NFL football game without the NFL name and players.
---- There is a limit for both politicians against video games, and video games against politicians. http://www.goteamretard.com
The question is, can you make a football game that is just as good, adheres to every rule of the Madden series, and does EVERYTHING
that Maddens does except use the real names of the teams and players. The answer is yes.
For those of us who have been playing video games since the 1970's, we lived with the games not having real names and numbers for years. The point is, the NFL license is just that, a brand license. You can make the (true)
statement that it is influential, but you can have an EQUALLY
competent football name WITHOUT
the NFL
"brand". Fact.