14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Fight Night Round 4, the rather successful boxing simulator from Electronic Arts, is splitting the world of boxing into two sides. Some of the fighters have supported a law suit from Fighter Inc., an organization that represents the interests of the boxers, saying that the videogame publisher effectively chose to only pay some fighters while neglecting others by signing individual deals related to their representation in the game.
Fighters Inc. is aiming to prohibit the sales of Fight Night Round 4 for the moment and has filed a request for injunction with the California United States District Court. Heavyweight boxer Shannon Briggs, Ring Super Bantamweight champ Israel Vazquez and ex boxer Aaron Pryor have testified that Electronic Arts does not have the interest of the athletes at heart when it chose how to present them in the game and how to compensate them.
Fighters Inc. is saying that at least 1.4 million copies of Fight Night Round 4 were sold and that the game brought in some 77 million dollars in revenue, of which none have trickled down to the organization that represents the interests of boxers.
Meanwhile, Electronic Arts is claiming that the Fighters Inc. deals athletes signed allowed them to sign separately with EA to profit from their image and brought on fighters like Kelly Pavlik, Jorge Arce and Fernando Montiel to support its point.
EA seems to be plagued at the moment with law suits from sportsmen that have not been compensated for use of their image. A judge recently decided that a legal action from former NFL player Jim Brown would be thrown out, with the judge saying that “The Madden NFL video games are expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment.” There are other suits active related to this issue.