Could lawsuits have a chance to break the exclusive contracts on sports franchises?

[Bofferbrauer2]

Ka-pi96 said:
EA are doing fucking amazing with FIFA mate, no idea what you're talking about. It's been my personal GOTY for the last two years and is the favourite to win that honour again this year too!

And no, a lawsuit wouldn't work. Monopoly? It ain't a monopoly though. Others can still make sports games, they just can't use any of the exclusively licenced leagues, and I'm pretty sure there's not a single sports game in existence that has every league licenced. Plus EA are a US company and from what I know of American ISPs the US clearly couldn't give a fuck about monopolies anyway so...

Unfair business practices? Unfair to who exactly? Every business has the right to bid for those rights so it's certainly not unfair to anybody in that respect. Besides, buying the exclusive rights to something has been around for a LONG time and is done in pretty much every industry in existence.

Brand damage? Well the only people who'd really have a case to claim "brand damage" would be the owners of said brands, and they're the ones that signed the rights contracts and are raking in the money from them so why would they want to stop that? Plus, what damage? If anything it's done more to enhance those brands than it has damage them.

Not in the case of Madden. EA actually had a competitor in that sport, and it was very successful - until EA simply bought the exclusive rights to the NFL. In other words, no other company is allowed to make an american Football game anymore, down to the rules!

So yeah, since no other was allowed to get an NFL license anymore, EA killed all potential competition with that move.