EA could be forced to end their standoff with Valve and Steam and even give Steam some of the once exclusive Origin PC games (ex. Battlefield 3) due to the early estimates of a NCAA players lawsuit reaching a potential $1 billion in damages.
The lawsuit could alter how EA handles the NCAA football franchise with options ranging from excluding schools that had members in the class action lawsuit to unlicensed teams meant to represent certain schools and conferences.
EA is also currently investing heavily into their career modes for coaches and players (ex. Path to Glory, Coaching Carousel) due to those modes not requiring real-world stats and results since those modes are controlled by the user. This would be the backup plan if EA indeed looses the lawsuit and has to pay a large settlement fee.
EA is attempting to counter by claiming NCAA athletes likeness and appearances would count as fair use or protected under the First Amendment as a way to not pay for certain athletes. They are also using the case Jim Brown lost when he tried to sue to get money for his likeness in video games but want it applied in a much broader scale to cover an entire league or system.
Quote:
A cocktail-napkin calculation about what's at stake in former NCAA players' lawsuit against EA Sports arrived at a potential cash-and-prizes value of $1 billion. But as apocalyptic as that total sounds, Electronic Arts doesn't sound too worried.
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Kidding aside, I'm not sure how to take Rovell's figuring, which gained a lot of traction largely because he is the nation's biggest name covering sports business. The pricetag assumes a few things, not least is that the players prevail in this class action suit. They very well could, but their case against EA Sports depends upon a finding, under Indiana state law, that EA knowingly, willfully or intentionally violated players' rights to publicity.
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http://kotaku.com/5827506/eas-disast...-giant-meteors
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Quick News Round-Up:
1) Sony confirms the PS Vita will only be released in Japan this Fall with US/Canada and Europe not getting the handheld until early 2012. Sony also made fun of the 3DS by saying the PS Vita won't need an early price drop since they packed it full of features.
2) Team Bondi reveals due to Rockstar refusing to fund any more of their projects, the studio is current looking into being merged or bought out by another publisher. As of now the studio is in discussion with KMM studio (Mad Max, Happy Feet, etc) with the main reason due to a large amount of former Bondi employees work at that company.
3) The Rambo series is coming back to video games as a studio in the UK, Reef Entertainment, announced they have bought the rights to the series and are currently in development of the first game. The studio plans on making a new series of Rambo games with the first scheduled in 2012 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.