Adam Bruno

See this guy above? No, that’s not Frank Caliendo. That’s John Madden, and his franchise might have cheated gamers out of up to $925 million!

Let me back up a bit. You might remember in 2004 that EA and NFL signed an agreement that allowed EA exclusive rights to use the NFL’s teams, stadiums, and players for 5 years. There’s a lot more drama where that came from, but to make a long story short, they screwed their competitors (particularly Take Two) out of 5 years of NFL titles. If you want more information, look it up.

However, a Michigan economics professor by the name of Jeffrey MacKie-Mason declared in a class-action lawsuit that by monopolizing the NFL franchise, EA was able to unfairly hike up the price of Madden titles to $60. This actually violates Californian anti-trust laws.

So…what’s this mean for you? If you bought a Madden game, you’re probably not going to get any restitution or anything even if EA loses the lawsuit, which is unlikely. But you’ve probably been screwed out of some money, and the jilted companies who would have preferred your gaming dollars aren’t going to walk away quietly.

On a personal note, there are very few sports games that I’ve liked, and I could never get into Madden. Also, I can’t justify buying a new game every year just because some stats were updated and a feature or one-and-a-half was added. Hell, I only buy every other Dynasty Warrior title. Anyway, let’s see what comes of this. Like I said, it’s unlikely that gamers’ll get anything back, but maybe a precedent will be set here. Hopefully, it won’t be in the wrong direction.

Source: Yahoo! Games