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Electornic Arts and ESPN have announced a new 15-year deal that allows EA Sports games to use ESPN's broadcast, print and online content, as well as its stable of personalities for all of its sports titles. The integration of the ESPN content into EA Sports games is to begin in 2006.
Fans of EA's Madden series might be wondering if the game's name will change or not. As of right now, this is unknown. John Madden is under contract with EA for his name and likeness through this year, but has not signed on yet for beyond.
"John Madden is under contract for the 2005-2006 season and we'll see where it goes from there," said Larry Probst, CEO of Electronic Arts. "But let's not forget that Madden is a part of the ESPN family with Monday Night Football. [...] It's possible we'll continue working with John longer term."
EA and ESPN are also looking into new game lines based on the partnership, like ESPN's X-Games.
"Nothing [is] finalized," said John Skipper, executive vice president for ESPN/Disney. "It's natural we'd think about things such as the X-Games. We certainly play a lot of poker on our air, so we're thinking about that. We're also thinking about bass. We have the rights to the bass license."
EA, though, isn't as hopeful for a bass fishing game from EA Sports.
When asked about the relationship between Sega Sports/Take Two and ESPN, ESPN's John Skipper said: "We were very happy with our relations with Sega," said Skipper. "However, if you think about who you want to be working with for the long term... EA is the natural choice for us to be associated with."
As to name changes for the games? Despite the strength of the ESPN brand, EA does not currently plan to use the cable sports network's name in its game titles as it has with John Madden and Tiger Woods. Should the company's relationship with Madden change, the games will likely be branded simply "EA Sports Football".
When discussing competition for its sports games, EA CEO Larry Probst was quick to speak.
"I think there's plenty of room for competition," said Probst. "At the end of the day its who can build the highest quality products. There's plenty of room for other third party companies - and console first-party companies - to do that. Just because EA Sports and ESPN are partnering I don't think people are going to run for the hills and not compete with us."
No, but I'm sure an exclusive deal with the NFL, AFL, and taking away the brand name of your biggest competitor's sports games might be a bigger deterent to competition, Lar. Oh, wait, EA already has those now. And let's not even talk about how laughable Sony's 989 Sports titles are, or how badly most of Microsoft's XSN Sports titles (Links 2004, Amped, and Top Spin excluded) sucked, either.
Source: CNN Money
Fans of EA's Madden series might be wondering if the game's name will change or not. As of right now, this is unknown. John Madden is under contract with EA for his name and likeness through this year, but has not signed on yet for beyond.
"John Madden is under contract for the 2005-2006 season and we'll see where it goes from there," said Larry Probst, CEO of Electronic Arts. "But let's not forget that Madden is a part of the ESPN family with Monday Night Football. [...] It's possible we'll continue working with John longer term."
EA and ESPN are also looking into new game lines based on the partnership, like ESPN's X-Games.
"Nothing [is] finalized," said John Skipper, executive vice president for ESPN/Disney. "It's natural we'd think about things such as the X-Games. We certainly play a lot of poker on our air, so we're thinking about that. We're also thinking about bass. We have the rights to the bass license."
EA, though, isn't as hopeful for a bass fishing game from EA Sports.
When asked about the relationship between Sega Sports/Take Two and ESPN, ESPN's John Skipper said: "We were very happy with our relations with Sega," said Skipper. "However, if you think about who you want to be working with for the long term... EA is the natural choice for us to be associated with."
As to name changes for the games? Despite the strength of the ESPN brand, EA does not currently plan to use the cable sports network's name in its game titles as it has with John Madden and Tiger Woods. Should the company's relationship with Madden change, the games will likely be branded simply "EA Sports Football".
When discussing competition for its sports games, EA CEO Larry Probst was quick to speak.
"I think there's plenty of room for competition," said Probst. "At the end of the day its who can build the highest quality products. There's plenty of room for other third party companies - and console first-party companies - to do that. Just because EA Sports and ESPN are partnering I don't think people are going to run for the hills and not compete with us."
No, but I'm sure an exclusive deal with the NFL, AFL, and taking away the brand name of your biggest competitor's sports games might be a bigger deterent to competition, Lar. Oh, wait, EA already has those now. And let's not even talk about how laughable Sony's 989 Sports titles are, or how badly most of Microsoft's XSN Sports titles (Links 2004, Amped, and Top Spin excluded) sucked, either.
Source: CNN Money