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
Ron Barr and
John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing games such as FIFA, NHL,
Madden NFL, and NCAA Football. EA Sports' early
motto,
If it's in the game, it's in the game, but today the motto is just
It's in the game. reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. Unlike other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them (
FIFA 98,
Madden NFL 98,
NBA Live 98, and
NHL 98 were released for the
Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and the
Super Nintendo throughout 1997; and Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had
PlayStation releases in 2004).
 |
Top: the original EASN logo; Bottom, the first EA Sports logo as a sub-label |
After establishing with some highly regarded titles from 1987-1992, most notably
Earl Weaver Baseball 1987,
John Madden Football 1990 and
NHL Hockey 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 (
example), the exception being the Madden games, which featured Madden himself. All boxes would remain this way until
1997, when individual players starred alone, and although the
99 titles featured one unusual dark blue case, the all-white boxes returned next year.
The first titles were released for both
Sega's 16-bit console, the
Mega Drive/
Sega 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 next Sega console, the
Saturn is believed to be one of the reasons it failed on the American market.
As the 16-bit era came to a close, and powerful 3D-capable consoles appeared, EA had to reinvent their franchises, and some of the earliest titles failed to live up to their 2D predecessors' reputation. However, in
1998 two games received very positive feedback -
FIFA 98: Road to World Cup and
NHL 98. Later that year,
World Cup 98 broke the bad reputation of "official videogames" by receiving high marks almost unanimously. As fluidity in gameplay caught up with graphics, EA soon had to face another problem: the lack of improvement over previous titles, or as fans dubbed it, "sequelitis". The first years of the 21st Century were problematic, with many fans left wondering about why they should bother with the next release, when few new features are added, gameplay was not improved (it was more action-oriented than some of their newer competitors) and their long-asked requests were not answered.
A new sublabel also appeared, dubbed
EA Sports BIG, which specialized on
extreme sports or unconventional takes on sports, such as
Def Jam Vendetta,
NFL Street,
NBA Street,
SSX,
FIFA Street and
Freekstyle.
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, it happens regularly in two-year intervals) and college football or basketball games based on both NBA Live and Madden NFL. The earlier titles released until 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,
1996 (prior to 1996 the name of the franchise was
Bill Walsh College Football)
*
NBA Live series,
1994:preceded by
The NBA Playoffs (
1989-
1993), and
NBA Showdown (
1993).
*
Triple Play series,
1996, discontinued in
2002, giving place to the
MVP Baseball series*
FIFA series,
1993:EA Sports also released several other games, most notably the games with
World Cup and
European Championship licenses.
*
NHL series,
1991:Three
Elitserien titles were also released in
Sweden:Three
SM-liiga titles were released in
Finland*
PGA Tour series,
1990, renamed to
Tiger Woods PGA Tour in
1999*
NASCAR Thunder series (later renamed to
NASCAR: Chase for the Cup, however, beginning with the 2006 version, the game will be titled
NASCAR 06: Total Team Control)
*
NCAA March Madness series*
Knockout Kings series, 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 league series:Australian Rugby League was released on Sega Mega Drive/Genesis as you play through the 1995 ARL season and the other ARL 96 was on PC depicting the 1996 ARL season.
*
Rugby Union series:Started at Rugby World Cup 1995 on Sega Mega Drive/Genesis which went on to Rugby 2001 (A late version of Rugby World Cup 1999) PC only, Rugby, Rugby 2004, Rugby 2005, and Rugby 2006 all on Playstation 2 and XBOX as well as PC
*
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 recent release of Cricket 2005
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.
In 2003 EA purchased the license to
NASCAR, ending competition from
Papyrus and
Infogrames.EA Secures Exclusive Rights to NASCAR Game Development Through 2009. Electronic Arts announced an exclusive relationship with NASCAR for worldwide rights to develop, publish and distribute NASCAR-branded interactive racing games through 2009. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. This agreement allows EA to create interactive games on a number of gaming platforms, including consoles and PCs, using NASCAR properties. "Enduring relationships with standout sports organizations like NASCAR allow EA to deliver the authenticity, simulation, and competition that fans of the EA SPORTS brand have come to expect," said Chip Lange, vice president of marketing for EA SPORTS. "Partnering with NASCAR the past seven years has been a great experience and we're excited about continuing this relationship and extending the reach of our NASCAR franchise to both NASCAR and video game fans."
"While it is rare for NASCAR to enter into an exclusive licensing arrangement, Electronic Arts has truly stood out in the longstanding efforts to support the entire NASCAR industry," said Blake Davidson, managing director, licensed products for NASCAR. "Additionally, EA is a sophisticated marketer, and their creative advertising and promotional efforts will help NASCAR continue to attract young fans, which is an important part of our overall growth strategy." Many loyal fans of the NASCAR Racing Series games by Papyrus (which by that time was a division of NBC Universal minority owner Vivendi, with NBC holding broadcast rights) resent EA for that and currently boycott all EA games. More recently, just a
month after purchasing the license of the
UEFA Champions League (previously owned by
Eidos) in
November 2004, EA announced an exclusive deal (rumoured to be worth around
US $1
B) with the
NFL and the
NFL Players Association (Players Inc.) making them the sole provider of licensed NFL video games until
2010, which effectively removes the competition from the market, who will not be allowed to feature real NFL players or teams in their games. It is considered that one of the main reasons behind the deal is related with
Take Two's aggressive pricing with their
ESPN-licensed series, which were retailed at
budget price, about half the price of a regular EA Sports game. It is believed that the same move was attempted in late 2004 on the
NBA, but it was refused and afterwards EA executives denied making any offer to the
basketball association. However, their "exclusive spree" continued on
January 2005 when a deal with the
Arena Football League (AFL) was announced, but with less impact on the market, as the license was previously vacant. A new deal was done just days after the AFL deal, when former SEGA/Take Two partners ESPN signed a 15-year deal with EA Sports. In 2005, EA also completed an exclusivity deal with the NCAA, allowing EA to produce the only officially licensed college football game. However, the exclusive rights to NCAA basketball was not included in this deal allowing
2K Sports to continue their College Hoops 2K series.
The only real loss of these deals was of the MLB series, which went for five years (starting in
2006) to
Take Two Interactive. EA Sports responded by using its exclusivity deal with the NCAA to continue its
MVP Baseball series in 2006, featuring collegiate baseball teams instead of professionals.
MVP 06 NCAA Baseball was the first college baseball video game produced for a console.
EA's policy of buying all FA licenses to make its game more authentic is frowned upon by gaming publications (such as Games TM) and gaming websites because they consider Pro Evolution Soccer to be a superior franchise, however the latter is limited because of failure to acquire licenses. The FIFA Football franchise has lost much respect from the gaming community for poorly received games (the differences between sequels recently has been minimal) but continues to sell well.
There are also rumours that EA Sports will put in a bit to acquire the
WWE license when
THQ's contract runs out in
2009.
*
2006 FIFA World Cup*
Arena Football*
FIFA Manager 06*
FIFA Soccer 06*
FIFA Street 2*
Fight Night Round 3*
Madden NFL 06*
MVP 06 NCAA Baseball*
NASCAR 06: Total Team Control*
NBA Live 06*
NCAA Football 06*
NCAA March Madness 06*
NHL 06*
NFL Head Coach*
Rugby 06*
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06*
Madden NFL 07*
NASCAR 07*
FIFA Soccer 07*
NCAA Football 07*
NBA Live 07*
Tiger Woods 07*
NHL 07*
Electronic Arts*
EA Sports*
MobyGames EA Sports games' group*
news on the NFL exclusive*
news on the NBA rejection of the exclusivity proposal*
news on the AFL exclusive*
news on the ESPN deal
