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In Depth Reactions to EA / ESPN Deal
Gamespot has a piece up about industry analyst reactions to the EA / ESPN deal. They span the gamut from appreciation for a smart business move to a frustration with a company throwing its weight around. From the article: "Has the fat lady finally sung in the sports-game wars? Should all the other publishers pack it in and head for the showers? Opinions are mixed, but this week's news was one of the year's biggest wins--for Electronic Arts. Now, the industry girds for a string of earnings calls where executives at publicly traded companies--EA and others--will surely face a grilling from curious analysts."
Awww shucks,
that looks like an interesting article.
However, I can't spare the time to read it.
Sincerely,
EA Employee.
And I'm going to hate the day when there's only one major league in each sport, because the NFL, NHL, NBA, and major league baseball have exclusive deals with the TV networks. Oh wait.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
I posted this on a previous story, but now it's truly on-topic. I did a comic strip about this on Wednesday.
The thing that's galling about this is the amount of lip-service that EA has given in the past to supporting the video game ecosystem. They've maintained they don't want to be the only video game developer, they just want to be the best. However, as soon as they are faced with truly healthy competition, their response is to burn a lot of resources killing it off. EA was never in danger of losing the NFL license, and the ESPN brand carries less weight than the Madden brand in the football game market. They have mentioned some possible features with ESPN data-feeds, but to me this deal just feels like insult to injury.
I'm almost certain that it will be a finely polished product, considering we all know that lack of competition provides MORE incentive to produce quality.
Slashdot is kind of like Playboy; we aren't here to read the articles.
Don't worry, there'll be NO major league for hockey soon.
\it was as if millions of Canadians' voices cried out in anguish, then was suddenly silenced....
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"