Nothing in life is free. In this case they are giving up their own likeness. I can think of few things in life more valuable than that.
If they don't feel like they are being compensating fairly it makes perfect sense to turn it down, or they might not have any interest in being portrayed in a video game. A remember seeing a DMX interview where he was upset about his compensation for allowing his likeness to be used in the Def Jam game. He basically said they gave him close to nothing. Bottom line is, some people have values and won't break them for money.
Bruh... DMX at this time period was knee deep in the smoking rock game. So he probably wanted 10mil, got 10K and was like
Read what post #3 said.
Other companies seeing you accept a shytty contract from one company sets sets a bad precedent for future negotiations.
You can't be a bop in EA Sports offices, let Konami and Capcom run a train on you, then go on a date with Nintendo talkin about marriage and a wedding ring. Nah fam you a hoe, we gon pay you what the next nikka paid you. You got a class rep to protect? you move accordingly, for better or worse
What you said makes NO sense, and is only for the worse. You sounding like Lavar Ball at the moment.
If you are into sports (don't ask me how, I just sense you're not) then you grew up playing sports games. Back in the day, they wouldn't have player likeness at all because graphics sucked. No need to get licensing.. then eventually they did and it was cool as fukk. Nobody looked or played like the real players, but the immerision/imagination.. it was just good fun. We grow up, some ppl wanna get paid too much to be in a videogame that is for kids and nowadays adults too. EA is getting paid to the point they could pay more for likeness. But at the same time the athlete is wrong to thing Madden sells because any one player is in the game
Same with 2K, infact, 2k has the bullshyt where if a player gets injured you can't use him online til he gets healthy again
I get the sentiment but I don't think it makes anysense unless we trying to simulate a real full season
Anyway... back to my point, no single player will make or break a sports videogame.
As for the deals angle you talked about, you saying Konami will low ball a nikka cuz he was in a Madden game and that its just business? GTFOH. Kobe was in every game prior to this one.. why did Nintendo make Kobe Bryant NBAbasketball for the N64?
Because he was the man at the time. They wouldn't say "EA only paid you this much". And, the people you named, none of them went on to have games, so it was loss revenue for them, and a loss for gamers/fans of those players who wanted to use them in their games. I take my daughter to Wizards games, she loves basketball because of this. If she couldn't use Wall or Beal (and these nikkaz makeing 85 & 128mil respectively) and the reason was because they wanted more money
Jordan was making 30mil a year his final 3/4yrs which is odd since salary caps today don't allow that much
He was highest paid athlete from Nike and Endorsements
Unlike Lavar Ball negotiated his own line with Nike backing it (Jumpman)
But still was against him being in games til 2K came along (making him the cover guy) and probably threw extra $$$
Jordan is known as a shytty human being tho so none of this is surprising...
this doesnt apply to people worth hundreds of millions