EA Sued By 6,000 Retired NFL Players

EA has had a lawsuit filed against it by approximately 6,000 retired NFL players, over the "unlawful" use of their likenesses in Madden NFL 09's historic teams.

The suit alleges that EA "knowingly and intentionally" used the retired players' likenesses in such a way to avoid having to pay licensing fees.

Former player Tony Davis claims that EA used the players' exact stats and positions from when they were active in the league, including height and weight, but removed their names and changed their uniform numbers to avoid licensing payments.

"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," the lawsuit says.

"Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are".

The lawsuit seeks punitive damages for "deprivation and violation of publicity rights".

When contacted, EA declined to comment on the litigation.

Source

EA: Crysis 2 Delayed Till Early 2011

Speaking at it's latest financial conference, EA has confirmed that the highly anticipated shooter Crysis 2 has been delayed until 2011, A first quarter release was cited with March apparently looking like the most likely release month.

     
Crysis 2 is due out on  PC, PS3 and 360.

Create Trailer

EA Bright Lights Announce 'Create' For PlayStation 3 With MOVE Support

It had to happen at some point. In fact, we’re amazed it didn’t happen sooner. LittleBigPlanet was such a run-away success in 2008, another developer was always going to take the idea; seems like Guildford’s EA Bright Light are the first though. Interesting that it should be the team up the road from Media Molecule though, eh?

Create, actually sounds rather interesting though — even if it does have all the personality of a cardboard box. The game will encourage players to create "imaginative gameplay challenges where the solutions are fuelled by the creativity of the player".

"Create uses families’ imaginations to develop new ways to play together that are both fun and challenging," notes EA Play’s Harvey Elliott in the press release.

"We wanted to design a game where the entire family can explore, decorate, and solve challenges where no solution is wrong and the only limit is the imagination".

Interestingly, the PlayStation 3 version of the game will support the PlayStation MOVE controller. Chalk that up as another game that’s getting optional support for Sony’s motion controller.

We’re not really sure what to think of Create yet. It does sound like LittleBigPlanet, but the trailer gives the impression it’s more like a video game adaptation of the Honda advert.

Create is coming to a PS3, 360, Wii & PC this November.