EA Continues to Spend Its Days in Court
- Scribbled on June 12th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
- Filed in Industry News, Legal Brief, Music/Rhythm, Sports, WTF
As soon as EA finds its way out of one court, it gets thrown into another. Back in March, Michael Antonelli filed a class action lawsuit against Harmonix, Electronic Arts, and Viacom over the fact that he could not purchase a stand-alone guitar for the videogame Rock Band on the Playstation 3. Mr. Antonelli claimed that in order to have the full Rock Band experience, he was forced to purchase two complete Rock Band packages (retailing for $170 each). The good news is that Mr. Antonelli dropped the suit a few days back, June 6. It is unclear why Michael dropped the suit, but the fact that a stand-alone guitar was released in April might have had something to do with it.
This is no time for EA to let out a sigh of relief though. Two gamers have filed suit against the company for “blatantly anticompetitive conduct” in Northern California’s US District Court. The gamers allege that EA’s exclusivity rights to the NFL, NCAA, and Arena Football licenses and their in-process take over attempt of Take Two are all part of a plan by EA to monopolize football sports games genre. The gamers point out that in 2005 when EA’s Madden was facing competition from Take Two’s NFL 2K5, they dropped the price of Madden by almost 70%. EA then signed several exclusive agreements with football sport franchises in the United States, locking out all competition. The price of Madden also rose to its previous high price, with no competition in the foreseeable future.
The two gamers are seeking restitution and damages for those who have purchased an EA football game since August of 2005, declaring the anticompetitive agreements null and void, and a disgorgement of all profits made from the anticompetitive practices. Unsurprisingly neither side is handing out comments to the press.
I’m sure EA’s lawyers appreciate all the work, I wonder though about their stockholders…
(Thanks, GameSpot and Joystiq.)
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