In the sports sub-genre of "men hitting each other," you might have noticed Fight Night Series has gone a bit quiet lately. EA Sports head Andrew Wilson says that's because the company has refocused that team towards its recent acquisition of the UFC rights.
Read more: 'Right now, UFC is where our fighting focus is' »
Gosh, wasn't the big reveal trailer for EA Sport's new next-gen engine Ignite exciting? To think, that's how sports games will be on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4! Ah. Well. Not quite. As you may have guessed, that wasn't in-game footage. No, EA says, that was pre-rendered footage which did at least use in-game assets and is supposedly "in line with" how the games actually are.
A new generation of consoles means a new generation of engines, and EA has shown off its new 'Ignite' engine which is the foundation of new EA Sports titles. Technically it's only confirmed it for Xbox One, announced during Microsoft's big reveal event, but we all know what's going on. It appears to be quite pretty, and will make you cry or something.
EA Sports announced a limited Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 today. The $99 set comes with a one year subscription to DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, which usually costs a few hundred bucks by itself.
Read more: Subscription details for customers, coupons offered »
Electronic Arts will continue making soccer games for the foreseeable future. The company announced today that it has extended its exclusive licensing agreement with FIFA through 2022. Under the agreement, EA Sports has exclusive rights to FIFA-branded action and management video games and the FIFA World Cup game, and remains a presenting partner of the FIFA Interactive World Cup.
Electronic Arts has decided that Madden NFL 25 will not be coming to the Wii U this year, the first time since 1991 that Madden will not be on a Nintendo platform. The move is not entirely surprising, given how unpopular the Nintendo version of the game proved to be.
The Tiger Woods PGA Tour series is reportedly taking a year-long hiatus, a ripple effect of current financial uncertainties. Instead, the development team is said to be skipping to Tiger Woods 16, to give them time to focus on development for the new consoles.
FIFA 14 was just announced last week with no release date and the only platforms listed as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. However, Amazon.com is already listing the game for a September 24 release, and added Vita as a platform as well.
Old school beat out new school in the vote for cover athlete of Madden NFL 25. Retired Detroit Lions star Barry Sanders survived six rounds of voting to beat out current Minnesota Vikings phenom Adrian Peterson, it was revealed on ESPN 2 last night.
Electronic Arts may have stumbled upon something with this cover-voting trend. Sports are a topic people are passionate about just slightly less than religion, and so this method removes them from the contentious topic of choosing who graces the cover. It's rolling out another such democratic process, with the second annual NHL cover vote to determine which ice hockey player makes the front of NHL 14.
Though no surprise to anyone, EA formally announced FIFA 14 today, and detailed the features for this year's iteration of the soccer game. It is in development at EA Canada, and coming this fall for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The announcement mentions that "additional platforms" will be revealed in the next few months, so we'd expect it to hit the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox as well.
An EA monopoly settlement has tripled its payout size. Electronic Arts agreed in July to pay a pool of $27 million among customers who bought Madden, NCAA Football, or Arena Football games, but fewer-than-expected claimants means more of a payout per claim.
Electronic Arts is apparently feeling out another entry in its NBA offerings. The company is holding playtest sessions for a "new NBA concept" later this week at EA Canada. This could be the next NBA Live title, or another basketball game altogether.
EA Sports' terribly-named Madden NFL 25 is named that way because it celebrates the 25th anniversary of the the long-running franchise. To commemorate that occasion, EA Sports will have fans pick this year's cover athlete between up and coming stars and old-school favorites. For the sake of the Madden Curse, let's hope that a retired player manages to take home the cover.
"I watch both boxing and MMA, but gotta say that I'm sad to see the FN series abandoned for the ..."
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