EA does it again...again

[Razer]

From GamePro.com

"Reebok has signed a multi-title sponsorship agreement with Electronic Arts that will feature the sportswear company's products in-game. The first to reflect this is NFL Street 2, released in the U.S. on December 26. Details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
The games will serve to promote not only products that are already in retailers, but also preview new products yet to come. Since Rebook is worn by many players in the NFL and NBA, EA insists the move to be a positive one for gamers, with director of marketing Tom Goedde saying it "adds great authenticity to a wide variety of our games".


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I think this is now going to become the norm as publishers see EA going more and more wholeheartedly for exclusive deals. I just hope that it somehow translates into lower game prices. I mean if Reebok is paying EA a billion dollars then should'nt we see at least a $40 price point across the board? They'll just probably give us the "We poured the money into greater developement" crap.

Realistically this is just the further evolution of games going exclusive, I guess (which I've never been a fan of). So in the long run we have no one but ourselves to blame as this goes all the way back to the Intellivision vs Atari days huh? Altho I believe the exclusivity in games didn't hit until the Colecovision was released.

[Shurikane]

More money in the pockets of EA. By definition, a company is going the way of absolute maximum profits, so if the deal gives 'em money, good for them and like hell they'll take down the game price to compensate.

What's funny is that they're gonna sign deals and exchange cash and all, while those not in stuff for the money get the jack. Example: my half-brother is trying to put an aircraft poster together, featuring every single aircraft type used by Air Canada. He realized the official aircraft for the Toronto Raptors was operated by Air Canada. In order to do things by the book, he phones the Raptors and asks if he can put their airplane on the poster. The following conversation ensues:

"You'll have to pay us 10,000$ for that."

"What?! But I'm literally doing you guys free publicity with my poster!"

"I don't care. You pay 10 grand, or you can forget about putting the Raptors aircraft on your poster."

The Raptors didn't make it on the poster.

[Dubcee]

Lame. If I wanted commercials in my games, I'd ask for a game that is inturrupted every 10 minutes by an ad for one product or another. =/

[Razer]

Well I don't mind the product placement if it's done unintrusively. The stuff in Burnout is an example. You do have Tiger Woods, NFSU2, and other EA game ads on the billboards but it actually serves as a landmark of sorts. The same for the boards in NFSU2 altho they use real sponsors (Best Buy, Axe, etc). My problem here isn't with the ads or advertisers being "in the game", it's more that I see EA limiting the rest of the industry by monopolizing features. I mean, how long before all Virgin music artists are only allowed in this game or all Pepsi products are only allowed in that game? What's next? Does Rockstar license California and then no other game can depict images of the state? It may seem like unrelated stuff now but it will impact lots of other games. I never ever thought I'd see something as stupid as an entity selling out completely to one other (NFL to EA) but it's right here and now. I can see the reality of it, EA is on every console so the product will still be available to every possible consumer, but still. What if EA actually produces a bad game ala Catwoman?
I tell you this has been coming a long time but we just never saw it. EA signed Jordan and it was all writing on the wall then. We just never bothered to read it.

And I thought Michael Jordan Chaos in the Windy City was just a bad game, I didn't realize it was the cornerstone of gaming Hell.