Editors Note: The following article is
an editorial opinion and is just an opinion. The article does not represent the view of the site nor all of its staff.
The
videogame industry is as fluid as the ocean. Every month there is
something that is announced or brought to the attention of the public
that become important and change the dynamic of the industry. Most of
the time those announcements have either a positive or negative impact
on the industry and with that there are those whom have strong opinions
on those announcements. Like many of you I have an opinion and here you
can hear mine. I will talk about the big news for the month of January
2005 from a Nintendo prospective, for these are my 2 cents. January was
an interesting month, a lot of deals involving licenses and sports were
made. In fact most of the big news of the month had to do with sports
and Electronic Arts.
Nintendo and Electronic Arts Mixing
it Up Again
RELATED STORIES:
Nintendo
All-Stars Take to the Street in EA's NBA STREET V3 &
Round
2 for Super Punch-Out!!
Although it was rumored in December, it was officially announced in
January. Last year Nintendo and Electronic Arts made a deal of sorts to
add Nintendo themed exclusives in some of its games. At first it was connectivity
between the GBA and GameCube versions of its games. Since connectivity
never took off the way they expected it to (in others words it was an
abysmal failure) they decided to take it to the next level. They decided
to add Nintendo characters into their games exclusive for the GameCube
version of the games a la Link in Soul Calibur II. So far Mario, Peach
and Luigi will be featured in NBA Street V3 and Little Mac and playable
Super Punch Out!! in Fight Night: Round 2.
One of the main complaints of the N64
generation was that Nintendo wasn't really that friendly with third
party publishers. So far in this generation Nintendo has been trying to
get on the good graces with different publishers such as Sega, Namco,
Capcom and now Electronic Arts. In 2003 when Namco released Soul Calibur
II which featured Link of Legend of Zelda fame the game sold much better
than its XBox and Playstation 2 counterparts. EA & Nintendo are
hoping to replicate that success with NBA Street V3 and Fight Night:
Round 2. I for one am excited of the possibilities. While I think that
Little Mac in Fight Night: Round 2 is nothing more of an afterthought,
he doesn't even look like his 2D counterpart. As for NBA Street V3 I was
hesitant at first, after all Mario and the gang don't really have the
most anatomically correct proportions compared to the NBA stars of the
game. But after seeing the videos that EA has published it looks like
they have made it work.
I am aware there are some people out
there thinking that Nintendo is "whoring out" or
"milking" Mario for all he is worth. You know what I say? I
say "SHUT UP!" Nintendo is in the business of selling
videogames, not just their own but also their third parties'. They
didn't do that in the beginning and now they are trying to make up for
it. As long as they do it tastefully then I am all for it. If it takes
Mario guest starring in a basketball game to sell 150,000 more units
more than it would on the GameCube then I am all for it. I am pretty
sure there are a lot of people out there that will at least try this
game because their favorite plumber is in it. Does that only add to the
ongoing stereotype that Nintendo loyalists are so cold hearted that they
need something Nintendo in a game to play it? Yes it does. I am little
upset that there are only three Nintendo characters in the game,
couldn't we get at least another three? I'm sure Waluigi, Wario and
Donkey Kong would have fit in nice in the game as well.
Then there is my gripe with Fight Night:
Round 2 (FN:R2). I played the original Fight Night and found that it was a great
game in the tradition of Knockout Kings (EA Sports' previous boxing
franchise) but one has to wonder with the inclusion of Little Mac. He
seems more like an afterthought. Its a nice little extra but I doubt it
will drive sales. At least we get the game since we never got the
first game.
EA Sports: Its Only in Their Game
RELATED STORIES:AFL
& EA Enter into Exclusive Agreement
&
EA and ESPN Sign 15 year Deal!
EA was the newsmaker of the month
wasn't it? In December there was a big brouhaha about Electronic Arts
securing the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums and players for
use in its football videogames. In January, EA got hold of another
football league. The Arena Football League and Electronic Arts entered
into an exclusive agreement to produce an AFL video game in time for the
start of the 2006 AFL season that also allows EA to share in the
proceeds of future expansion team sales. And if that wasn't enough, less
than a week later Electronic Arts and ESPN announced a long-term
agreement for the development and integrated marketing of EA SPORTS
games containing ESPN content. The relationship will include established
EA SPORTS franchises -- which will be enhanced by ESPN telecast, print
and online content – as well as new sports games to be published by EA
based on ESPN media properties. The agreement is for fifteen years with
an option to terminate after ten years under certain conditions and
gives EA exclusive first rights to all ESPN content for simulation
sports games.
One of the few ways to succeed in any type of business/industry is
to make money. You make money by being better than the competition. One
of the ways to be better than the competition is have something they
don't have. EA listened to that philosophy by gaining the exclusive
rights to not one, not two but three lucrative properties within one
month. Now why everyone is complaining, I don't know. It makes perfect
sense for me that one company should have have the sole rights to a
certain property. It is done with television/movie/comic book games so I
don't see why the same can't be applied to videogames. Its not like we
see three different companies publishing games based off the Shrek,
Spider-Man 2 or even the Winnie the Pooh movies/television properties.
Heck even the WWE is exclusive to THQ. I never understood the need for
multiple NFL games, I understand the competition that was between the
Madden and NFL 2k games but what was the point. They were both good
games in their own right. And if soccer games have taught us anything
(EA also has the exclusive rights to FIFA which is the biggest soccer organization
in the world) you don't need a license to be a good game. Look at
Konami's soccer games, despite the lack of real players they're great
games.
A lot of people have been bad mouthing EA, now I'm not a EA cheerleader.
I didn't appreciate what they did with GoldenEye:
Rogue Agent. And it does bother me that EA didn't do what Take Two did when they got the Major League Baseball license, Take Two has made it possbile that 1st party developers of the consoles can publish their own baseball games. But enough is enough, some people have been complaining
without getting all the facts. They all figured that EA drove up to the
head offices of the NFL and dumped a truckload of money. Well they
probably did something like that but in a different way. The NFL sent
out a proposal to the different publishers about gaining exclusive
rights. Sega and Take 2 were involved and I have a suspicion Sony and
Microsoft were involved too (Nintendo doesn't have any of its own
football games), none of them were willing to pony up enough dough for the
pigskin league. EA won the bidding process fair and square. In nature,
according to Darwin its survival of the fittest. In the business world
its survival of the wealthiest. And with EA also getting the AFL and
ESPN rights the same can be said about those two. Then there is the fact
that Sega is left with no NFL game and no ESPN license (NFL 2k was among
its best sellers) and people siding with Sega. If they can't stand the
heat they should get out of the kitchen. Lets just hope with the
addition of these exclusive licenses EA can take their sports games to
the next level.
