DOH! EA obtains exclusive rights to the Simpsons

This is neither sweet NOR tasty

Published on November 2, 2005 By historyishere In Gaming

Is it me, or is EA becoming the Montgomery Burns of gaming... without the charm?

Yes, alas it is true... on the next generation of platforms, any game based on the Simpsons will be made by EA, the juggernaut that already owns the exclusive NFL and NCAA Footbal licence, and given the quality of most Simpsons games in the past(Vivendi Universal's Hit and Run being a notable exception), this is a horrifying prospect.

While EA may actually produce good games with the licence, I fear that in fact, the output will be substandard... and with the Simpsons falling, probably another set of bidding wars are going to become common in the arena of television licensing, much like they did with sports gaming, and that could get ugly. The question is: who is going to be the next to fall? Will Take-Two grab Family Guy and South Park, while Square/Enix, in their own best interests, signs a deal for the rights to use all the Disney characters semi-exclusively(with Disney producing their own games for their upcoming animated movies).

EA is perfectly within their rights to make this deal, and Fox/James L. Brooks are too... but that still doesn't mean I can't lament the decision. There will be no Woohoo! from me this day, merely a Marge-like groan of disapproval.

Comments

SSG Geezer

on Nov 02, 2005

EA is the 1970's Kmart of gaming companies, mostly shoddy crap, and underpaid employees. I won't buy Battlefield or the Tiger Woods golf games because they are made by EA.

historyishere

on Nov 02, 2005

I don't think I would go so far to say that everything they put on disc is buggy and horrible... because they do put out some good games... but the bigger they get, the lower they can set the bar.

As they are also the biggest kid on this block(not including Microsoft because they are not primarily a game company), they are setting the trends for less and less originality and risk in game making, which in the long-run, is hurting the industry.

Yarlen

on Nov 03, 2005

I just wanted to mention that this and a ton of other gaming news is being posted daily at TotalGaming.net:

http://tgnforums.stardock.com/?ForumID=322

bakerstreet

on Nov 03, 2005

First, the whole sports monopoly thing is overblown. Just because they own the rights to specific franchises doesn't mean you can't make games based on the sport. Perhaps if you have to have specifically named players and teams it would be a problem, but that seem a bit nerdy even for gaming. That would be like me taking issue with an RPG because it doesn't have Frodo, imho. Most everyone I know that are hardcore sports game players aren't really gamers at all, and use the console as some fantasy sports league...

Second, I wouldn't ever expect movie/tv show games to be worth a damn. It is the rarest exception to the rule when they are, because people buy the subject, not the game. It doesn't matter how many or which companies own the license, until people stop buying games just because of the license they won't HAVE to make them decent.

historyishere

on Nov 03, 2005

We'll see if Blitz: The league can make a dent in the market. If it proves viable(and they are using the right marketing in this case about giving you everything the NFL stopped them from doing), you may very well have a point.

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