EA Releases Awesome New Commercial

This was new to me but all the same I found it very entertaining. A video showing what was dubbed the “Jesus Glitch” from Tiger Woods 08 was posted almost a year ago on Youtube. You can watch that here if you so choose. In promotion for Tiger Woods 09 EA Sports has released a new commercial in response to that video. This is definitely worth a watch!

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EA Sports Developing Tennis Game

One sport that has been missing from EA Sports lineup of games has been tennis. Today EA announced that they are currently working on one. The game will release first on the Wii in 2009 before coming to other consoles. It is being developed out of EA Canada and will be their first game to use the upcoming Wii MotionPlus.

EA SPORTS will bring tennis to life and allow players to experience the pressure and excitement of competing in the greatest theaters in the game, and it will be the only videogame to feature the All England Lawn Tennis Club – home of The Championships, Wimbledon. The all-new EA SPORTS tennis franchise will offer innovative ways to play, both as or against the greatest players from the past or present, letting you control the ball and work the court like you never have before in a tennis videogame.

EA-Take Two Saga Continues

In a press release today it was stated that EA and Take Two discussed the the potential acquisition over the course of the weekend. EA has now accepted Take Two’s offer to provide them with a presentation that includes non-public information. EA will allow their offer for the outstanding shares to expire at at midnight eastern tonight.

Basically what this means is that because EA doesn’t feel it could integrate Take Two in order to take advantage of the holiday season and as such they will reevaluate the offer. From the beginning that was the first goal of the deal for EA. On the other side Take Two is attempting to prove they are actually worth more than what EA is offering. But the two sides are talking which is more than could be said previously.

At this point regardless of what happens the upcoming 2K Sports releases (NBA 2K9, NHL 2K9) should not be affected.

Tiger 09 and NHL 2K9 Demos Available

The Tiger Woods 09 demo is out for both the 360 and PS3. It contains three different holes to play, feedback and custom drills with Hank Haney, and the opportunity to try out the new club tuning feature.

The NHL 2K9 demo can be found for the PS3 and should be following on the 360 as early as next week. It offers a three minute period with the Detroit Red Wings facing the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Does Tiger Woods feel like an advancement from last year? Does NHL 2K9 really come across as having been built from the ground up? Feel free to leave your thoughts on both of the demos in the comments.

Random Topics for Today

• The latest video for NHL 09 focuses on the new features. Combined with the previous Hockey League trailer you’ve got an impressive overview of what to expect this year.

• IGN has a new video detailing the changes to GamerNet for Tiger Woods 09. The instant challenges should be a nice addition and the simultaneous online play will be especially welcome.

• Gamespot has posted up two new videos from NBA Live 09. They show some pregame footage (though the introductions are skipped), the flipping through some of the DNA screens in the menu and about a minute of gameplay including commentary. Interestingly the tip-off has changed since the community event where it was a low camera angled up instead of an overhead camera as seen now. The first video can be found here and the second here.

• I was surprised to stumble upon the cover for Madden 09 En Espanol which is set to release in mid-September. Bears G Roberto Garza is the cover athlete. *Insert Madden curse reference here*. At least this year the cover isn’t graced by an admitted past steroid user.

Facebreaker Photo Face Tutorial

EA Sports has released a video detailing the Photo Game Face feature in Facebreaker. Given that the demo releasing tomorrow on XBL and PSN presents the ability to insert your created face (only onto one of the three characters available within the demo) this is a timely look at the process. It then goes further into the feature with the create-a-boxer options and EA Sports World character uploading.

Photo Face and the EASW integration remain the most interesting aspect of Facebreaker. The ability to create yourself (or anyone) is going to make for a lot of fun and unique bouts. Combined with the video uploading and character sharing from EASW there are a lot of entertaining possibilities.

Continue on to view the tutorial video.

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EA Sports Titles Returning to PC Next Year

This year much angst was caused within the PC community when EA Sports announced Madden, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods would not be released. At the time Peter Moore made assurances that the PC was not being abandoned as they needed to take the time and reevaluate their offerings. Piracy, sluggish sales, and lagging quality were at the core of the concerns. During an investor conference call earlier today Moore confirmed that these titles would be returning to the PC next year.

“We are retooling these titles [on the PC] to take advantage of the online connectivity in a bigger and more meaningful way”

Back when the cancelation news was announced I proposed the likelihood of a shift in the focus of the games, possibly to the free model supported by downloadable content and advertising. You could also potentially see a movement toward MMO style representations of the games. The PC releases need be unique instead of just copies of the console versions. So the mention towards importance of online connectivity is something to take note of.

Random Topics for Today

• Madden List has put together sortable player ratings for Madden 09. You can check out the ratings by team and display the players in order according to their rating in any category.

• NFL Head Coach 09 has such depth that considering the Prima guide for the game wouldn’t be a crazy idea. There is a sample available of what will be found in the guide (PDF) by downloading from here. There are six pages of the actual guide included covering various topics such as injuries, future prospects, free agency, and playbook breakdowns.

• Should be a busy end of the week as the demo for Facebreaker is set to arrive Thursday and the demo for Madden 09 will come on Friday. There is the possibility the PS3 version of the Madden demo may come as early as Thursday but it won’t be known beforehand if that is what ends up happening.

• There is a community event for NCAA Basketball 09 coming in a few weeks. As always I’ll do a posting beforehand seeking any questions or suggestions to take into consideration. I didn’t find March Madness 08 to be much fun (outside of the post moves) and with 2K shutting down the College Hoops series the pressure is on EA to deliver a great game.

• I’ve uploaded another 11 or so minutes of Madden 09 (early) demo footage. I’m really anticipating the release of the downloadable demo this week since it will be from a near final build. This older demo feels so far behind even the build that was played even in late May at the community event. Continue on to watch the two videos.

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Peter Moore Wants E3 Open to Community, Deflects NCAA Football 09 Criticism

In his latest blog entry, Peter Moore comments on the state of E3 while indirectly brushing off criticism directed at NCAA Football 09. He goes on to thank the community for helping to get some of the issues with the latest releases (NCAA, Nascar) addressed so quickly.

The consensus seems to be that E3 was awful this year and that major changes are needed. Moore suggests that fans of the games should be involved in the event. Considering EA’s focus on involving the community that should not come as a surprise.

Let’s invite the community.  With the right planning, involving our biggest fans in E3 would bring back some of the raw passion the event has lost.

Moore also touched on the company’s interaction with the community and how it has been of immediate benefit. He cites the producers posting on the EA Sports World forums (don’t exist) while linking to the same old terrible EA forums.

We’d love it if every game was perfect, but in all my years in the industry I’ve never seen a game with zero bugs.  Because of the fans, we’ve already addressed a handful of issues in NCAA Football and NASCAR, and if we can create an environment to continue to get our games in the hands of you, our fans, sooner, then I’m all for it.

While gameplay is always going to be subjective there is no excuse for broken features. While they are actively working on getting them fixed that doesn’t change the fact that areas such as player editing and Online Dynasty have caused major headaches for consumers.

EA Gameshow Shutting Down

After hanging around for nine months EA Gameshow is coming to an end as of July 25th. The live interactive sports trivia game never received much of a push from EA and subsequently never gained any traction with the masses. A small but dedicated group of players remained throughout.

When Gameshow first started up I was hooked. It offered a unique experience with live hosts and their interation with the players added a lot. Once I stopped playing though I just couldn’t find the motivation to start back up again. In a way that addictive nature may have done it in for me as it almost seemed like a time committment would have to be made to play it.