EA Defends UEFA EURO 2012's Lack of Licensed Teams and Players

16
Lee Bradley

The UEFA EURO 2012 add-on for FIFA 12 is out today and it has already stirred up controversy. As well as reported crashes and freezes on the Xbox 360 version of the DLC, fans are complaining that nearly half of the 53 international teams featured in the game have fake names and strips.

The unlicensed teams include one of the co-host nations, Ukraine, as well as Belarus, Estonia, Macedonia, Slovakia and Wales. In addition to this, players are also complaining that the add-on lacks a qualifying round option.

In response to the fan outrage about the news, EA has been forced to issue a statement. Basically, the publisher is saying that licenses for all of the teams and players would have cost too much money.

“The national teams in Euro 2012 are a combination of teams officially licensed or covered by our FIFPro license, and generic teams,” said the statement. “While we would like to have every national team officially licensed, of the 53 national teams in the game, 29 are licensed. The remaining ones are generic.

“The inclusion of national teams is negotiated between EA and each national football association, which we need to license individually. Licensing teams and leagues is a business decision based on market size and limited resources, and within these parameters, we were not able to negotiate an agreement with every football association to have their national team included within the game.”

So there you have it. Not entirely sure that’s going to make anybody feel better though.

UEFA EURO 2012 marks the first time that the tournament spin-off has been made available as a download instead of a standalone, disc-based game. Unfortunately, it would seem that the reduced price also comes with reduced content.

Comments
16
  • and we care because...
  • Heh. FIFA 12 sold over 10 million copies. SOMEONE somewhere cares.
  • Hey, I care But the simple fact is, that I actually enjoy the DLC. Fully licenced or not! I mean, there is a certain other football game that does pretty well for itself without being fully licenced but as long as its fun, thats the main thing :)
  • @3 agree with ya, I'm loving the dlc and to me it was well worth my cash
  • without licensed teams fifa is just ... pes
  • Cost too much money, fifa was number 1 on all sales lists for months and months and now dlc that costs 15.99, definatly not cheap and they dont even have the full roster, well... ah ah hahahahaha you fucking morons i warned you all the other day to boycot the dlc as we should be paying for shit like this it should be a reward for continued play on their games, did anyone listen ,nope, so with 45nfor the game 15.99 for dlc and then probably 50 for UT stuff and they still want to keep all your money, its your own fault for playing into their hands.
  • I'll click dislike on my post first shall i, start the ball rolling. Get it Ball...Fiaf... Ah forget it.
  • This sort of thing is completely out of EA's hands though, if you've got issues with any countries lack of official licenses, then write a letter to the FA of that country and ask for an explanation, because they're the ones who ultimately decided where the rights to their names and likenesses go to. It doesn't matter what sort of money it costs, would you pay out of your arse to secure the official names from teams like fucking Macedonia and Estonia? Think about it...
  • I have always said these types of things in football should of been add ons and not disc versions but who cares about names least the teams your going up against mostly will be up to date
  • Garth Bail star of Wales, Bob Levandosky striker for Poland, and Chris Boid for Scotland.... ;)
  • and this is one extra reason not to buy it. being forced to keep fifa 12, being forced to pay 16 quid for a substandard add-on you can never get your money back on, 10 measly trophies - not even qualifying rounds? its terrible and no excuse for it - they wont do this again im sure, world cup 2014 will be ps4 retail and euro 2016 will be too. this is the only one of these types of games i wont buy. and all teams would have been licensed if they had sold a retail disc, made more money and given people a plat to aim for.
  • bad move going down the dlc line - its only to cover their arse on preowned sales bcuz they know after the tourneys r over the prices on these game tumble bigtime as ppl look to shift their copies. and if they were honestly thinkin a dlc release is better for the game then y so dear?
  • Well then I will probably not buy it.
  • Demo was crap anyway,not that i would have bought it at that price. Also the fucking thing fucked up the fifa 12 its self. Slow down sometimes long loads and i swear to god im getting weird fouls called even though no tackles made and running down wing then all of a sudden either team gets a free kick?
  • Having teams that aren't licensed is a joke. Have a look at the official forums discussing this if you're unsure about it, there are so many problems and complaints it's ridiculous. There's multiple things you can do in the original that aren't available in the DLC (i've heard you can't even play friends or as your pro) And saying that it would cost to much to buy the licenses is pathetic. Look at how many copies they're selling of the regular Fifa's and they still can't part with a little cash to make this game official (which is the whole point of fifa in the first place) Really wish it was a stand-alone game so i could just avoid it. I like to get 100% in all my games but £16 for this mess is way way too much.
  • Just shows the lengths of greediness that EA resort to, I would have had no problems with the lack of licenses if the add on was at least half the price, hell I can go and buy PES11 for the price they are charging for the DLC. There should even be an edit mode where we can change the names and appearances if we wish or better yet, leave it as an optional extra to download in the fifa store? if people wanted to pay the extra money. Bottom line is that Fifa sold very well this year and was top of the charts for a long time, then alot of people would have bought Live Season, Ultimate Team packs, etc topping up the coffers as the game went along. Then they drop a €20 price tag on this? Just pure greed. Will have to consider whether Fifa 13 will be worth purchasing now.
  • You need to register before being able to post comments

Game navigation