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Tag: Partnership

  • NCAA Suing EA Sports: End Of College Sports Games?

    The NCAA has had a long history with EA Sports, and the production of NCAA football video-games. However, recently reports have surfaced saying that the NCAA is suing EA Sports for a number of issues that have arisen during the business partnership between the two institutions.

    The lawsuit was filed on November 4th in a Georgia state court, following a settlement that happened in September.

    In September, EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company agreed to pay around $40 million to settle lawsuits brought by former players whose likenesses were used without compensation.

    EA Sports is responsible for making a variety of games for each system, but has its most popular in the NCAA Football franchise. Due to the fact that college players are not paid for what they do, it has been a rule that EA Sports is not permitted to use the names of players within the game, and it seems that the rule was broken, without players being compensated.

    It was already announced that an NCAA football game would not be released in 2015, and there has not been a college basketball video game since 2010, while the result shows the business of producing college sports video games may be coming to an end. It is disappointing for the people who play these games, but luckily the Madden games will still be around.

    The NCAA hopes to block the settlement, and require to EA Sports to pay for future liability judgments, legal fees and costs, according to the reports.

    The Collegiate Licensing Company seems to be involved in the battle between EA Sports and the NCAA, which might not be theirs to fight. Andrew Giangola, the spokesman for the CLC, said “CLC is caught in the middle of a dispute between NCAA and EA which should not involve us.”

    He obviously does not feel that they are involved, and EA Sports should be held solely responsible for any incident that occurred regarding the players not being paid for their usage in the game. Two players who were very vocal in the campaign to get compensation for the players were Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player, and former college quarterback Sam Keller.

    Unfortunately for people who enjoy playing college sports games, it seems that with the NCAA suing EA Sports, and continuing their demands, that the era of college sports video games may be coming to an end. This will certainly hurt the business of EA Sports, who has made a great deal of profits from their NCAA Football games.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc33Bc_6nh4

    Image via Facebook

  • The Philadelphia Eagles Partner With Rovio, Angry Birds

    Rovio is enjoying some incredible success, due, in large part, to their immensely popular Angry Birds mobile game. In the past, the company has partnered with outside entertainment entities before, like 20th Century Fox for the version of Angry Birds Rio. Rovio is looking to expand these partnerships, and so they turned to one of the most popular events/industries in the United States to further their reach, the NFL.

    While Rovio has not partnered with the entire National Football League, they have, however, partnered with one its more popular teams, the aptly-named Philadelphia Eagles. To announce the pairing, the Eagles held something of press conference, one that was apparently powered by Rovio’s animation department:


    Included in this partnership will be the opportunity for players to fire the Philadelphia Eagle mascot at those pesky pigs. Unfortunately, however, the reveal of the Angry Birds Philadelphia Eagle is only being teased at the moment. Here’s a screencap of the piece’s outline:

    Philadelphia Eagle Angry Bird

    A quick look at the Eagles’ logo and you can get a good idea of how the Angry Birds version is going to look, especially when you consider the shape of each eagle’s face:

    Philadelphia Eagles

    In case you aren’t aware, Eagles fans are some of the most outspoken in sports, which, in turn, means the pushback against them can be loud as well. An example of this is evident based on the Twitter reaction to the news:

    What’s next for Rovio in relation to sports partnerships? Perhaps something with the Atlanta Hawks? What about the Seattle Seahawks? Let’s not forget about the St. Louis Cardinals, either. And then there’s the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Of course, getting approval from Disney to use that particular IP is a completely different story.

  • Facebook Partnership Boosts Spotify Sign Ups

    While the fallout from Facebook’s f8 conference focuses directly on privacy and user data gathering, and the requisite backlash once the new features went live, there are some success stories to be told as well.

    Just ask Spotify.

    Since the f8 announcement of the Facebook/Spotify partnership, Spotify is experiencing a great deal of growth for its music service, to the tune of a quarter of a million users a day. Since the announcement, AppData reveals (via PC Magazine) that Spotify’s subscription total increased from 1 million to 4.6 million users.

    Clearly, Facebook users want their music and Spotify is an effective method for receiving it. The service offers three subscription tiers: Free, Unlimited and Premium. It’s not known how many of the new users are choosing the “free Spotify” option, but considering the fact that the Spotify blog issued a post aimed at those who use the free version, it’s easy to imagine many of these Facebook users who are new to Spotify opted for the one that doesn’t cost anything.

    From the post, which details how the free service will go:

    …from today, there’ll be no more Spotify Open. Everybody who listens to Spotify for free will simply have a Spotify account.

    All Spotify accounts come with a 6-month time-limit honeymoon! During this time, there’s no limit to the amount of ad-supported music you can enjoy. After 6 months, you’ll be limited to 10 hours of streaming a month and a 5-play limit for any individual track. Unless, of course, you’ve subscribed by then!

    It’s pretty obvious which direction Spotify is steering its users, and that is directly at the paid versions. For those who haven’t yet joined Spotify, but are curious about doing so, you must have a Facebook account to access the service. That news, however, has not been received with open arms, something a comment from the Spotify blog demonstrates quite well:

    Well, that’s all very well and good, but you’ve lost my trust, so for now I’m keeping my spotify account and facebook account separate. Which is a shame, because I liked seeing other peoples public playlists. It doesn’t help that you’ve done this at the same time as other facebook dirty tricks are coming to light, otherwise I’d be more inclined to try it out. But for now, I’m not getting into anything I can’t get out of. Now, when are we getting the Beatles and the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

    Whatever the backlash, it’s pretty clear based on the growth Spotify has received since the f8 announcement that complaints like the previous do not rule the day, although, maybe they should. But then again, do casual Internet users even worry about privacy; that is, until these issue falls hit closer to home? Doubtful.