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EA Sports

EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as NBA Live, FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NASCAR. Most games under this brand are developed by EA Canada, the studio of Electronic Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, as well as at EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida.

EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game, (later abbreviated to just It's in the game.) reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. Unlike some other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 (FIFA 2005 was also the last PlayStation title to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as the final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well.

16 bit era

After establishing with some highly regarded titles from 1987-1992, most notably Earl Weaver Baseball in 1987, John Madden Football in 1990 and NHL Hockey in 1991, EA decided in 1992 to launch a sports-only label and EASN was born. ESPN took note of the similarities, and forced EA to come up with a new label to put their sports label under for the 1994 season. The first run of the 1994 season still donned the EASN brand, with a 'first run' logo on the lower right hand corner of the box (this was also done in 1993), while the rest of the production run was under the name EA Sports, with a new logo (whose design later would be also adopted by EA) and a uniform box design, all white with a live-action photo (), the exception being the Madden games, which featured Madden himself. This logo was designed by Michael Osborne (now Michael Osborne Designs) with assistance from Don Transeth and Jeff Odiorne. All boxes would remain this way until 1997, when individual players starred alone, and although the 1999 titles featured a dark blue case, the all-white boxes returned the next year with John Madden on the cover.

The first titles were released for both Sega's 16-bit console, the Genesis, and Nintendo's SNES (among other platforms, but only regularly for these two). In fact, some attribute the success of Sega's console partly on the strength of the sports catalog provided by EA Sports. On the other hand, the lack of them on the Dreamcast is believed to be one of the reasons it failed in the American market.

Series and games

Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. However, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it's not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98 (as EA has the license for the FIFA World Cup and the European Football Championship, each happening regularly in four-year intervals), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively. The titles released before 1996 are referred by fans as the classic series.

Madden NFL series, 1988 (games prior to 1993 did not have an NFL license)

NCAA Football series, 1993 (prior to 1996 the name of the franchise was Bill Walsh College Football and College Football USA)

EA SPORTS GameShow, 2008 EA SPORTS GameShow is a nationwide, online trivia game hosted by a live, on-air DJ.

NBA Live series, 1994, preceded by The NBA Playoffs (1989-1993), and NBA Showdown (1993)

NCAA March Madness series, 2003

MVP Baseball series and MVP NCAA Baseball series, 2003, preceded by the Triple Play series (1996-2002)

NHL series, 1991

Three Elitserien titles were also released in Sweden

Three SM-liiga titles were released in Finland

A Japanese version called NHL Pro Hockey '94 was released on the Super Famicom

FIFA series, 1993 (EA Sports also released several other games, most notably the games with World Cup and UEFA Champions League licenses)

PGA Tour series, 1990, renamed to Tiger Woods PGA Tour in 1999

NASCAR series

Knockout Kings, which was composed of five titles (between 1998 and 2002) and then discontinued when Fight Night 2004 was released. In the past, Toughman Contest was also released.

Total Club Manager

Preceded by FIFA Soccer Manager (1996) and the Premier League Manager series.

Rugby (rugby union) series

Started at Rugby World Cup 1995 on Sega Mega Drive which went on to Rugby 2001 (A late version of Rugby World Cup 1999) PC only, Rugby, Rugby 2004, Rugby 2005, Rugby 2006 and Rugby 08 all on Playstation 2 and XBOX as well as PC

Rugby League series

Australian Rugby League was released on Sega Mega Drive as you play through the 1995 ARL season and the other ARL 96 was on PC depicting the 1996 ARL season.

Arena Football

First version released in February 2006

Cricket Series

Cricket started out with Ian Botham International Cricket 1996 (called Cricket 96 in Australia); Its sequel was Cricket 97 which was complemented with Cricket 97: Ashes Tour Edition. Following releases include Cricket Ashes Tour (1998), Cricket World Cup 99 (1999) and Cricket 2000. From then onwards, the series was a biennial one, with the releases of Cricket 2002 and 2004. It has returned to being an annual release with the releases of Cricket 2005 and Cricket 07.

Fight Night series

follows your career either as a boxer of your creation, or as a legend(due to the closing of EA Chicago, there may not be another installment of this series).

There are other series, including F1 Championship (discontinued after Sony acquired the exclusive license for the Formula 1 championship), Superbike and others with a limited distribution such as AFL

Exclusivity deals

In 2003 EA purchased the license to NASCAR for 6 years, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames.

On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the NFL and its Players' Union for 5 years. On February 12, 2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the 2012 NFL season.

Less than a month after the NFL Exclusive deal, EA Sports signed a 4-year exclusive deal with the Arena Football League.

On April 11, 2005, the NCAA and EA Sports signed a deal to grant EA Sports the sole rights to produce college football games for six years.

EA lost the rights for MLB games to 2K Sports in 2005, ending EA's MVP series; however EA has made NCAA Baseball games annually since losing the MLB license.

In 2005, EA Sports and ESPN signed a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games. EA's use of the ESPN license has steadily increased over the early life of the deal. EA's early usage of the ESPN license began with ESPN Radio and a sports ticker in titles like Madden NFL, NBA Live, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NCAA Baseball and Football. The ESPN integration now includes streaming podcasts, text articles (including content only available previously to ESPN Insider subscribers), and ESPN Motion video (including such programs as Pardon The Interruption).

In January 2008, EA Sports decided not to renew their NCAA College Baseball license while they evaluate the status of their MVP game engine.

It is rumored that EA has brought the company behind the Euphoria Engine

PC Games

In June 2008, EA Sports announced that for the year 2008 the games Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NBA Live would not be shipped for PC.Sports on the PC - Peter Moore BlogPC News: Peter Moore comes clean on EA Sports PC - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

The head of EA Sports at that time, Peter Moore cited as underpins to that decision piracy and the fact the "PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles

have attracted millions of consumers."Addressing the Core Issues - Peter Moore BlogSports games not viable on the PC, says EA | News | Custom PC

The company noted however that the games FIFA and NHL and FIFA Manager would still be released for the PC platform.

08 Games

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

NCAA March Madness 08

UEFA Euro 2008

09 Games

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

References

External links

EA Sports

EA SPORTS GameShow

Voice of Madden NFL, Tony Bruno

news on the NFL exclusive

news on the NBA rejection of the exclusivity proposal

news on the AFL exclusive

news on the ESPN deal

EA sign Hamilton for F1 title promotion?

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