Madden and NCAA Players Need to Decide Position on EA Class Action Suit

It seems that a class action suit that was launched against video game publisher Electronic Arts in 2008, over its exclusive rights to create National Football League licensed American football titles, is getting near to an actual trial date, as the company has sent notices to all those who have purchased Madden NFL games after the start of 2005, telling them that they need to decide whether they are joining the class action suit.

Those who exclude themselves will not be part of an eventual settlement and might miss out on some form of compensation while those who join the suit will be bound by the final verdict or settlement that is reached.

Those who can join the suit are all those who bought Arena Football, NCAA Football or Madden NFL on home consoles or on handhelds after January 1, 2005.

The suit claims that the lack of competition from companies like 2K Sports meant that EA Sports was free to deliver a sub-par game, unchallenged at the price point they liked.

The gamers who launched the legal action point out that in 2004 Take Two launched NFL 2K5 for 19.99 dollars and that Madden 2005 was then reduced to 29.95 from 49.95 dollars, which did not happen again in following years.

The suit says, “This vigorous competition benefited consumers. Electronic Arts could have continued to compete by offering a lower price and/or a higher quality product. Instead, Electronic Arts quickly entered into a series of exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations in the United States: the National Football League, the Arena Football League, and NCAA Football.”

The plaintiffs are aiming to get an annulment of the deal between Electronic Arts and the NFL, the redistribution of all profits generated from the deal and damages for all those who have purchased EA made football titles from 2005 until now.