A district judge has cleared a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts this week, which means it should eventually become a jury trial.
The class action suit claims EA illegally increased the price of the Madden NFL series after it won exclusive rights to the NFL license, in 2005.
Any purchaser of a Madden game from 2005 until now is eligible to register as a plaintiff in the wide-ranging suit.
In 2004, Take-Two released NFL2K5 for just $19.95, taking on the behemoth Madden, which was forced to drop its prices to $29.95, down from the standard $49.99.
EA won the exclusive NFL license the next season and returned Madden prices to $50, and eventually $60 when the Xbox 360 and PS3 were launched.
Says plaintiff lawyer Steve Berman (via GI):
“Consumers now have a legal standing to demand that EA refund consumers millions of dollars it made from Madden NFL and other sports titles through what we contend was an illegal price-gouging scheme.
“We believe EA forced consumers to pay an artificial premium on Madden NFL videogames. We intend to prove that EA could inflate prices on their sports titles because these exclusive licenses restrained trade and competition for interactive sports software.”
Result for: other sports
Sky has purchased 15,000 3D televisions from LG Electronics and plans to install them in pubs around the country to promote its 3D broadcasts. Back in January, Sky broadcast a Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester United and held screenings of the event in nine pubs to show off the technology.
The broadcaster is set to launch a 3D service for wide use in the UK in April, while consumer electronics manufacturers are pushing out new 3D flat-panel televisions. The industry hopes that growing interest in 3D movies in theaters will spur interest in 3D TV at home.
Sky hopes that showing football matches and other sports events in pubs in 3D will generate some interest in it. LG also benefits from the deal in that its televisions are being promoted as part of Sky’s demonstrations.
Result for: other sports
Electronic Arts, seeing the huge popularity of Nintendo’s Wii Fit , has announced they will be releasing their own fitness game, EA Sports Active next March for the Wii console.
The game will have tennis, boxing, soccer and other sports which gamers can play using wireless controllers attached to their arms and legs.
The game will retail for $60 USD and will include a book on healthy eating.
Electronista says Sports Active “centers around a pair of leg straps that hold both the Wii remote and nunchuk in place as well as a single resistance band for the upper body. The set lets Nintendo’s own controllers properly track exercise across the whole body and also introduce enough physical stress to provide strength-based exercise.”
