EA Sports

EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements with real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as FIFA, NHL, NBA Live and Madden NFL.

EA Sports
FormerlyElectronic Arts Sports Network (1991–1993)
TypeDivision
IndustryVideo games
Founded1991 (1991)
Headquarters,
U.S.
Key people
Daryl Holt (COO and VP)
Products
ParentElectronic Arts
Websiteeasports.com

Most games under this brand are developed by EA Vancouver, the Electronic Arts studio in Burnaby, British Columbia as well as EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida. The main rival to EA Sports is 2K Sports. Notably, both companies compete over the realm of NBA games, with 2K releasing the NBA 2K series. Konami is its rival in association football games with their own series, Pro Evolution Soccer.

Unlike some other sports game companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the bestselling active platforms, sometimes long after most of the 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 and Madden NFL 2005 were also the last two PlayStation titles 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. EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor English Football League Two team Swindon Town F.C. from the 2009–10 season onward and the EA Sports Cup in the Republic of Ireland.

History

COO and VP Daryl Holt in 2018

Exclusivity deals

In 2002, EA purchased the license to NASCAR for six years, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames. They lost the NASCAR license in 2009 and the NASCAR license would be owned by Polyphony Digital for the Gran Turismo series starting with Gran Turismo 5, and also Eutechnyx for NASCAR The Game series until its inception in 2015.

On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League (NFL) and its Players' Union for five 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 four-year exclusive deal with the Arena Football League (AFL).

On April 11, 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (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 Major League Baseball (MLB) games to 2K Sports in 2005, ending EA's MVP series; however, EA made NCAA Baseball games in 2006 and 2007 after losing the MLB license.

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

In 2005, EA Sports and ESPN signed a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games from 2K Sports and Sega. 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).

The federal district case O'Bannon v. NCAA, decided in 2014, involved the rights of college athletes to be able to control their likelinesses in downstream products from NCAA properties. The case specifically concerned EA's NCAA Basketball 09 when it was first filed in 2009, leading EA to abandon the NCAA Basketball line that year. The case was ruled in favor of the college athletes, which made licensing of these for EA's games more difficult. While EA had continued the NCAA Football series, the NCAA terminated its license agreement with EA in 2013 due to several factors, including the O'Bannon case as well as issues over comparable licensing fees to the professional sports games.[1][2]

In 2012, EA signed a "multi-year, multi-product" partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, taking over from THQ.

Following the release of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour in 2015, EA Sports announced that they would end its PGA Tour series after 25 years, with the said game was pulled from digital storefronts in May 2018. 2K Sports announced that they would assume their licensing agreement with the PGA Tour beginning with the release of The Golf Glub 2019 featuring the PGA Tour in 2018.

The NFL, the NFL's Players' Association, and EA confirmed its exclusivity contract for NFL sports simulation games in May 2020, lasting through at the 2025–2026 NFL season with an optional one year extension. The new contract allows EA to develop NFL games outside of the typical EA Madden titles, including for mobile games.[3]

In February 2021, EA announced it was returning to college sports with a EA College Football game to be released within the next couple of years. The game will not use any player likenesses, but instead bypasses the issues with the NCAA by licensing all other branding related to college football such as team names, uniforms, and stadiums through the Collegiate Licensing Company. At the time of this announcement, EA stated they had no other agreements with other NCAA sports.[1]

PC games

For the 2003 game year, and from years 2006 to 2008, EA published compilations of EA Sports titles for Windows.[4][5][6][7]

In June 2009, EA Sports announced that for 2010, the games Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, NHL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour would not be shipped for PC platforms.[8] The NCAA Football series had not been released on the PC since 1998, The Tiger Woods series' last PC game was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, the NASCAR series had not had a PC version since NASCAR SimRacing in 2005, and the last Madden series' to be released on PC was Madden NFL 08. The NHL series' last PC game was NHL 09. Likewise, NBA Live 08 was the final PC version for NBA Live.

The head of EA Sports at that time, Peter Moore, cited piracy and the fact that the "PC as a platform for authentic, licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles [...] have attracted millions of consumers."[9]]

However, FIFA series continues to be released on PC, and for the first time since 2008, Madden NFL 19 was released for Windows and Mac.

PlayStation Home

On April 23, 2009, EA Sports released the long-awaited "EA Sports Complex" space for the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, PlayStation Home in the European and North American versions.[10] In the Complex, users can play a series of mini-games, including poker, kart racing, golf, and it also features a Virtual EA Shop. There are also a number of advertisements for upcoming EA Sports games. Each mini-game that the Complex features has a reward or rewards. Heavy Water, a company dedicated to developing for Home, developed the EA Sports Complex for EA Sports.

Originally, the Complex just featured two rooms: the EA Sports Complex and the EA Sports Complex Upstairs. The EA Sports Complex featured racing and had a golfing range that was unavailable to play. The Upstairs had four poker tables that users could play at any time. With the June 18, 2009 update, the Complex's name changed to the EA Sports Racing Complex and the Upstairs changed to the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room.[11] Other than the name change, the update took away the golfing range and added four more karts for users to play Racing at and it also added one red poker table to the poker room.

The July 2, 2009 update added golf and another poker room making four rooms for the Complex; the EA Sports Racing Complex, the EA Sports Golf Complex, the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room, and the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room. The Racing Complex features Racing with a total of eight karts; four on each side of the Complex. The Golf Complex features two Practice Ranges for golfing; one range on each side of the Complex. A Golf Pro-shop is coming soon for the Golf Complex. The Green Poker Room featured four green poker tables that users can play anytime. The Red Poker Room featured four red poker tables but requires users to have 2,000 points to play.

On July 16, 2009, EA Sports released another room for the Complex making five rooms for the Complex. This room is the game space for Fight Night Round 4 called "Club Fight Night" featuring a mini-game called Club DJ and coming soon, robot boxing.[12]

On July 30, 2009, EA Sports added a Black Poker Table to the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room for the higher level players. In time, there will be a room dedicated for this table just like the Green Poker Room and the Red Poker Room. They also added a fifth green table to the Green Poker Room. The update also included the addition of the EA Sports Pro Shop where users can purchase full boxing outfits and furniture from Fight Night Round 4. The Pro Shop is found in the Racing Complex. The August 16, 2009 update replaced the fifth green table in the Green Poker Room with a red table. They also reduced the number of points for the Black Table from 20,000 to 10,000. The August 27, 2009 update separated the scoreboards for each level of play – Green, Red, and Black – and into Daily boards and Season boards (left side and right side), improved card readability, additional rail seating near the poker tables, player removal on lockup while playing poker, and player buy-in refund on removal (does not refund on Home disconnect) while playing poker.

On October 9, 2009, EA Sports released the EA Sports Complex to the Japanese version of Home. They also released NFL jerseys for every team in the league for purchase inside of the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex. EA Sports have also teamed up with the Home team to produce and distribute exclusive virtual items that serve to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 100% of proceeds for these items went go to the Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer research and awareness programs. The items are black jerseys with a pink number 9 on the front and the name Brees on the back also in pink. These jerseys were available from October 15, 2009 to November 25, 2009.[13] On November 5, 2009, for those who purchased the Brees Breast Cancer jersey, they received a free DJ kit that is featured in the Club Fight Night space by entering one of the two EA Sports Complex poker rooms between November 5, 2009 and November 25, 2009. On November 25, 2009, Fight Night Round 4 producers Mike Mahar and Brian Hayes were in Home between the hours of 4:00pm and 5:00pm PT (7:00pm and 8:00pm EST), for a live chat with the PlayStation Home community in one instance of the Club Fight Night space.[14] On January 7, 2010, EA Sports released NCAA college football jerseys in the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex.[15]

On August 2, 2011, EA Sports launched the EA Sports Season Ticket subscription service. It was discontinued in 2015 and it was replaced with the similar EA Access service.[16]

Franchises

Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. Nevertheless, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it is not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98, all in the wake of FIFA Soccer Manager in 1997 (as EA has owned the license for the FIFA World Cup, which happens regularly in four-year intervals, since 1998), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively.

Series Sport First release Latest release Upcoming release
Madden American football John Madden Football (1988) Madden NFL 21 (2020)
NBA Live Basketball NBA Live 95 (1994) NBA Live 19 (2018)
NHL Ice hockey NHL Hockey (1991) NHL 21 (2020)
FIFA Association football FIFA International Soccer (1993) FIFA 21 (2020)
UFC Mixed martial arts EA Sports UFC (2014) EA Sports UFC 4 (2020)
EA College Football College football EA College Football (TBD)

Former

Series Sport First release Last release
PGA Tour Golf PGA Tour Golf (1990) Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (2015)
NCAA Football NCAA Football Bill Walsh College Football (1993) NCAA Football 14 (2013)
Mutant League Football American Football Mutant League Football (1993)
Mutant League Hockey Ice hockey Mutant League Hockey (1994)
Mario Andretti Racing Auto racing Mario Andretti Racing (1994) Andretti Racing (1996)
Australian Rugby League Rugby league Australian Rugby League (1995)
Cricket Cricket Cricket 96 (1996) Cricket 07 (2006)
Triple Play / MVP Baseball MLB Baseball Triple Play Baseball '96 (1995) MVP Baseball 2005 (2005)
NASCAR Stock car racing NASCAR 98 (1997) NASCAR 09 / NASCAR Kart Racing (2009)
AFL Australian rules football AFL 98 (1997) AFL 99 (1998)
FIFA Manager Association football management FIFA Soccer Manager (1997) FIFA Manager 14 (2013)
NCAA Basketball NCAA Basketball NCAA March Madness 98 (1998) NCAA Basketball 10 (2009)
Knockout Kings / Fight Night Boxing Knockout Kings (1998) Fight Night Champion (2011)
Superbike Superbike Superbike World Championship (1999) Superbike 2001 (2000)
Supercars Supercars V8 Challenge (2002)
SSX Snowboarding SSX (2000) SSX (2012)
F1 Formula One F1 2000 (2000) F1 Challenge '99–'02 (2003)
Rugby Rugby union Rugby (2000) Rugby 08 (2007)
NBA Street Streetball NBA Street (2001) NBA Street Homecourt (2007)
NFL Street Street football NFL Street (2004) NFL Street 3 (2006)
FIFA Street Street soccer FIFA Street (2005) FIFA Street (2012)
MVP: NCAA Baseball NCAA Baseball MVP 06: NCAA Baseball (2006) MVP 07: NCAA Baseball (2007)
Arena Football Arena football Arena Football (2006) Arena Football: Road to Glory (2007)
EA Sports Active Training EA Sports Active (2009) EA Sports Active 2 (2010)
Grand Slam Tennis Tennis Grand Slam Tennis (2009) Grand Slam Tennis 2 (2012)
MMA Mixed martial arts EA Sports MMA (2010)

References

  1. Ivan, Tom (February 2, 2021). "EA stock reaches all-time high after it announces new college football game". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  2. Bailey, Kat (February 5, 2021). "How EA Is Bringing Back College Football and Sidestepping the NCAA's Biggest Problems". Vice. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  3. Sarkar, Samit (May 28, 2020). "EA maintains exclusive Madden NFL license in multiyear renewal". Polygon. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  4. "The EA Sports Collection - PC". Amazon. ASIN B00021LTQG. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  5. "EA Sports 06 Collection (Madden 06, NASCAR Sim Racing, NBA Live 06, NHL 06, Tiger 06) - PC". Amazon. ASIN B000HAR8XA. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  6. "EA Sports 07 Collection (NBA Live, NHL, Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Nascar Sim Racing)". Amazon. ASIN B000WSG89M. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  7. "EA Sports 08 Collection - PC". Amazon. ASIN B000B7PW6E. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  8. Robinson, Andy (July 3, 2008). "PC News: Peter Moore comes clean on EA SPORTS PC". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved May 29, 2008.
  9. Chalk, Andy (July 3, 2008). "Peter Moore Talks EA Sports On PCs". The Escapist. Enthusiast Gaming LLC. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  10. Locust Star (April 23, 2009). "EA SPORTS Complex Now Live in PlayStation Home". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  11. Locust Star (June 17, 2009). "Coming to PlayStation Home: New SOCOM Space, Ghostbusters Apartment, EA SPORTS Complex Update + More!". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 21, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  12. Locst Star (July 15, 2009). "This Week in PlayStation Home: BUZZ! and Fight Night Space Launches, and More!". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on September 20, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  13. Locust Star (October 7, 2009). "NFL Comes to PlayStation Home + Dethklok, PixelJunk Museum and MotorStorm Personal Space". PlayStation Blog. Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  14. Locust Star (November 25, 2009). "This Week in PlayStation Home: New Red Bull Space + Event, Fight Night Producer Chat & More". Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 28, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
  15. Locust Star (January 6, 2010). "This Week in PlayStation Home: Waterfall Terrace Personal Space, NCAA Football Jerseys, + Loads More!". Sony Computer Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
  16. "Origin Access". Origin.com. EA Access. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
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