Well Abadd I think you agve a pretty bad example. 
American Football is a genre on it’s own and not some sc-fi story whose copyright belongs to A or B.
Let’s compare the two using your superhero example.
This is actually more like EA getting the exclusive license to Marvel, being that it is the more popular. VC/Sega/Take Two (Sega is actually the least involved in this out of the three) could then either license DC comics, Darkhorse, or any other minor comic books. Or heck, they could even make their own superheroes. You can’t license something that doesn’t exist 
In the case of football, VC could make an XFL game, an arena football game, or an unlicensed football game that plays exactly the same, just with different names.
It doesn’t prevent you from making a football game, just from using the names/logos/stadium designs. You can’t copyright “Oakland,” for example. You could copyright the Oakland Coliseum/Oakland Raiders, but you could easily make a make-believe Oakland football team named “the Butt Pirates” and have them play in the “Parthenon” (and heck, you could even give them the same stats from previous games, since stats are fictional anyway).
[quote=“Abadd”]Let’s compare the two using your superhero example.
This is actually more like EA getting the exclusive license to Marvel, being that it is the more popular. VC/Sega/Take Two (Sega is actually the least involved in this out of the three) could then either license DC comics, Darkhorse, or any other minor comic books. Or heck, they could even make their own superheroes. You can’t license something that doesn’t exist
In the case of football, VC could make an XFL game, an arena football game, or an unlicensed football game that plays exactly the same, just with different names.
It doesn’t prevent you from making a football game, just from using the names/logos/stadium designs. You can’t copyright “Oakland,” for example. You could copyright the Oakland Coliseum/Oakland Raiders, but you could easily make a make-believe Oakland football team named “the Butt Pirates” and have them play in the “Parthenon” (and heck, you could even give them the same stats from previous games, since stats are fictional anyway).[/quote]
It wouldn?t be worth SEGA 'stime. VC is as good as dead. Please let not focus on Superhero rubbish.
L
ook a much better way to look at it, is that EA hold the Tiger Woods and PGA Tour licence.
Now that doesn?t stop M$ from making Links with Official Players (other than TW), and real life courses like St Andrews.
So consumers get a choice, which forces EA, M$ to keep adding extra year after year, and push new things and ideas to keep ahead of the rivals and gain more sales. So the consumer in the wend wins.
If EA did the same as it?s done to Golf. Well that?s the end of Links and all the other Golf games. Best get used to Mario Gold with made up Characters and courses .
Look at RALLY. Sony own the rights, but CM can still make Colin Mcrae Rally with all of the offical cars ect. If EA did a simluar deal, then nobody else would be able to use cars like the Evo , or Subaru not matter if it’s not a Rally game.
That is not good for the industry
I never said it was good for the industry. You’re misinterpretting what I’m saying. I’m just saying that it’s unfortunate, but there’s not a whole lot that can be done to stop it, as the NFL/FIFA/whatever is just like any other license out there. We’ve just been used to having a choice in this category.
There are ways around these sorts of things. It just takes some creative design and a lot of vision. They may not sell as much, but at least now they don’t have to pay the enormous licensing fees 
no! i am right! 
with each installment they hardly change (roster update), and the gameplay is simplistic and repetative, and they only sell because of the sport franchise. if you were to employ the exact same gameplay but give it a different setting, no one would buy it.
i didn’t say everyone but it is true, the majority of people that play sports games ONLY play sports games and thus- for all the REAL gaming that they are missing out on, they are not truly interested in gaming.
if you like sports games, that’s fine, but you have to acknowledge how small of a fraction you are of people that play sports games and even know what panzer dragoon is.
Forgot to address Gehn’s post.
Actually, the NFL doesn’t own the copyright to football… just the league. You can still do college football, amateur football, generic football, XFL, arena football, etc. etc.
I think the analogy still stands. Is it perfect? No. But it works.
edit: And Megatherium, actually, the vast majority of hardcore gamers that I know also play sports games in one form or another. In fact, another message board I belong to is nothing but hardcore gamers that talk about Halflife, Gitaroo Man, or whatever, but get just as heated when talking about Madden vs. ESPN. It’s not fair to generalize.
what you said doesn’t conflict with what i said.
ABADD’D
[quote=“Abadd”]I never said it was good for the industry. You’re misinterpretting what I’m saying. I’m just saying that it’s unfortunate, but there’s not a whole lot that can be done to stop it, as the NFL/FIFA/whatever is just like any other license out there. We’ve just been used to having a choice in this category.
There are ways around these sorts of things. It just takes some creative design and a lot of vision. They may not sell as much, but at least now they don’t have to pay the enormous licensing fees [/quote]
Sorry for going over the top, no you didn’t say it was good and so on. But I still don’t think you know how HUGE this news is.
If it were applied to over sports
Geoff Crammond may not have the F1 licence, but he can still use the real cars, and real life circuits , and even drivers likeness.
If EA did the same deal as with NFL. Geoff would not be able to use the real life ciruits. Making the game pointlesss.
Who it thier right minds would buy an F1 game if you couldn’t driver around the real circuits ?
Codemasters don?t have the Rally licence, but they can use drivers like CM, and real cars like the EVO, Subaru ect.
Well that would be gone if EA did the same thing with Rallly.
Who would buy a Rally game if you couldn’t drive real life Rally cars ???.
It would just be pointless. This is way this news is so HUGE. And sets a dangerous precedent
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]
Think of it this way. If EA did the same with Superhereo games. Then the likes of Capcom could never make the X-Men series and so on.[/quote]
Actually, Capcom can’t anymore. Marvel passed the license to make such games from Capcom to Activision. Which is why we haven’t seen Marvel vs. Capcom 3 or Marvel Super Heroes 2 by now. >.>
[quote=“Megatherium”]
what you said doesn’t conflict with what i said.
ABADD’D [/quote]
D’oh!!! :anjou_embarassed:
edit: Don’t worry, I know the importance of this change. I was simply explaining that, really, there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it except to try and think of ways around it (much in the way Codemasters gets around the rally license).
[quote=“Abadd”]
what you said doesn’t conflict with what i said.
ABADD’D
D’oh!!! :anjou_embarassed:
edit: Don’t worry, I know the importance of this change. I was simply explaining that, really, there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it except to try and think of ways around it (much in the way Codemasters gets around the rally license).[/quote]
But as I said, they can still use the cars. If you couldn’t drive real rally cars the game would be pointless.
No 1 would look at it twice.
[quote=“Pedro The Hutt”]
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]
Think of it this way. If EA did the same with Superhereo games. Then the likes of Capcom could never make the X-Men series and so on.[/quote]
Actually, Capcom can’t anymore. Marvel passed the license to make such games from Capcom to Activision. Which is why we haven’t seen Marvel vs. Capcom 3 or Marvel Super Heroes 2 by now. >.>[/quote]
Yeah sad news that. Would have great for some PSP ports as well. Looks like Capcom is more or less giving up on 2D fighters :(.
I wouldn’t be so certain about that, they just released a new one… even if that uses recycled sprites for the nth time.
If anything there still is SNK. XD They should be doing better now that they tore themselves away from Playmore.
[quote=“Megatherium”]
no! i am right!
with each installment they hardly change (roster update), and the gameplay is simplistic and repetative, and they only sell because of the sport franchise. if you were to employ the exact same gameplay but give it a different setting, no one would buy it.[/quote]
A different setting? Do you mean like playing a football match in the desert or something? Or a forumla 1 race on the moon?
Sports games are bought because of realism. People that (usually) enjoy the sport will play the game. FOr example, i like football, so i buy Championship Manager/Football Manager 2005. I buy Pro evolution, I but Fifa 2005, etc. I don’t go out and but hockey or rugby games. Because of this, I don’t play any other games? THe sports genre should be abolished? I don’t think sports fans go out and buy a console just to play a sports game.
So thats why you think the sports game genre dshould be “abolished”? I know a lot of people that only play first person shooters… Should that be abolished because they don’t play any other games?
Before Orta, not many people knew what PD was regardless of if they bought sports games or not. You seem to think sport game fans no nothing about gaming? I bet you any games mag would be ranting and raving about fifa/pro evo. champ manager/football manager. I hope you understand what i mean
From what i know, only Fifa football has total rights for the english clubs and leagues. Pro evo never had real life stadiums (Trad brick stadium anyone?). last time i checked this is football only have player liklynesses and not the official names (might have been updated now tho)
However pro evo recently got rights for the spanish league (i think) so they have those official players and kits. As it is, fifa and champ manager have the officialness, so they will dominate, as it has been shown. Would you buy a sports management game that has fake teams and names?
I think Megatherium’s point was that sports games mainly sell because of their theme rather than their gameplay. I mean, like Scott said, how many people would actually buy sports games if it wasn’t for the official teams and such included in them? A lot less I’d imagine.
For example, I play shooters because they’re fun. Sure other stuff like an interesting game world or a good storyline help a lot to set them apart from other games in the genre, but the main reason I play them is because of their gameplay. I’m curious to know whether this is the same for fans of sports games?
well you can look at it this way… football games always used to have international teams to play with. They would have nothing to lose by putting them in. People would still play the game if it was green united vs the power army, but Brazil vs Italy is alot more appealing. Even when international names were used, the players were all fake.
Nowadays, things like fifa have all the rights. football game gameplay on nearly all games are excellent, so the consumer will just get the more appealing one, happening to be the one with the official names.
However, if this was not the case, and the football games still had only the international teams with fake names, i know people would still buy them, just to be able to play football matches on their console. Just like how it was all those years ago. But i can’t really say that about all sports games, since i am just talking about football.
Rally games… have they always had the real cars? Nope, but doing so has given it more appeal over other racers with fake cars. Its just about competitive advantage really.
World Wide Soccer 98 is still my afvourite football game of all time…the names they gave the players were sometime hilarious since they simply changed vowels and such so that the names wouldn’t be the ones in real life…
Ditto.
solowing nailed half of my point. the other half is this:
most of them really do. sure, they may pick up a movie-to-game conversion or a GTA or a halo somewhere along the line. the real point i’m trying to make is that the majority- not you apparently, nor the group that abadd spoke of- but the majority of people that play sports games are more interested in sports than in games.
they buy sports games more as pieces of sport memorabilia than out of an actual interest in playing games. and thus, the sports genre is a doorway through which hordes of individuals that are not truly interested in gaming become a part of the market and since they are so substantial, the industry does everything it can to accomodate them.
i was not really serious about abolishing any genre, i was just exxagerrating a point.
What blows my mind is that people actually buy these fucking football games. I swear to god, it’s the same damn game every year.
I mean, I hate to sound biased and all, but why not get off your ass and play real football instead? 