Speaking in an interview with Axios, EA Sports general manager Daryl Holt said that in the next five years, EA Sports is looking to expand its audience to 500 million players, more than double the current figure, and that it plans to do that by expanding into “new business models, new geographies.” The company is looking to deliver “a sustained offering of sports gaming content to players around the clock,” according to Axios’ report.

“We’re creating very much a social aspect and social networks within our games,” says Holt.

As for NBA, EA brought the NBA Live line of games to a halt in 2019, stating back then that it was working on a rework of the franchise, and Holt says that work is continuing. “We’ve got some next-generation HD basketball projects that we have been talking about and designing and working on,” he said.

Meanwhile, with Konami recently having rebranded its long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series as eFootball, an ongoing free-to-play live service platform, could EA adopt that approach with its own annual franchises anytime soon? Holt says that though the annual release cycles for these games isn’t going to be dropped anytime soon, EA is still going to keep an eye on that business model to see if it can be adopted in the future.

“I think it is an evolution that is happening around the gaming industry in different ways,” he said. “How we unlock the big beat of sports into that type of a service, I think we’ll see over the course of the future.”

While FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, and UFC games continue to be successful for EA Sports, the company is looking to expand and improve in other areas as well. With the recent acquisition of Codemasters, F1 has, of course, been brought under the EA Sports label, while EA’s recent acquisition of mobile games developer Playdemic also signifies the company’s intent to drive growth in the mobile space.

It was many moons ago that the NFL and game publisher EA entered into an exclusive contract, letting EA be the only game in town to produce titles with the NFL license. There’s an entire generation of players at this point who have only known Madden NFL. While things may change a bit, it seems the bulk of that deal will remain for the next half decade.

As reported earlier in the week, it was expected that EA and NFL would be entering into an extension of their partnership. Now, as reported by the NFL, both the league and EA have officially announced the deal. It will be a six year renewal being called, “the biggest and widest-reaching interactive entertainment agreement in NFL history.” It will give EA the sole rights to create simulation-based games based on the NFL product. While there’s some leeway in non-simulation titles, such as the deal the NFL and 2K Games struck, it does seems EA can also still produce non-simulation titles as well and stated they are looking at producing other games in other genres. The deal guarantees EA the above mentioned exclusive rights up until 2025, and if revenue markers are hit, will include 2026 as well.

The next game in EA’s simulation series, Madden NFL 21, is set to release in August, with the reveal trailer set for June 1st.

For those on the younger side, it may be hard to believe, but once upon a time there were actually other NFL games out there besides EA’s seemingly immortal Madden NFL series. The company locked up the exclusivity of the licenses years ago, and it seems as it will continue for at least another half decade.

As reported by Sports Business Daily, NFL owners are set to vote on the extension of the partnership next week to continue the exclusive deal with EA. While nothing is official yet, as Daily says, since the motion is already on the table it’s almost assuredly a go.

While it may seem like an obvious play considering just how long EA has had the license, earlier in the year NFL made a deal with 2K Games about making “Non-Simulation” games based on their product. For what it’s worth, apparently that language is in the new deal as it gives leeway for arcade-style games as well additional apps and things of that nature. But those who were hoping that maybe the door was open to a full blown revival of NFL 2K will have to wait patiently for at least another 5 years.

Electronic Arts returns to Los Angeles this year with EA Play 2019, a special pre-E3 event where it showcases its upcoming releases. There’s no stage event this year, but there will be a series of livestreams. Check out the YouTube stream below to see all the announcements as they happen – it starts at 9 AM PDT.

From there, it’s a countdown to the actual series of livestreams at 9:15 AM PDT. At 9:30 AM PDT, you can expect to see the gameplay reveal of Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. As a single player-focused title set between Star Wars Episode 3 and 4, the main crux will be the combat and exploration.

At 10 AM PDT, we’ll hear more about Apex Legends and its second season of content. Battlefield 5 is on at 10:30 AM PDT with more information on upcoming content. Expect to see more information on EA Sports FIFA 20 (with FIFA 20’s VOLTA mode recently being revealed) and EA Sports Madden NFL as well. Finally, the show ends with The Sims 4 at 12 PM PDT, with the new expansion, Island Living, likely to be revealed (check out its leak here).

Haunted – Pokemon Snap

Take it as just another urban legend or the stuff of truth but one unfortunate player apparently found a haunted copy of Pokemon Snap. The N64 title saw players on-rails, taking pictures of Pokemon on Pokemon Island. It’s a generally happy game but this particular copy had odd purple streaks throughout. Professor Oak’s eyes were replaced with pitch-black voids and many of the lovable pocket monsters looked downright unsettling (according to the person in question that is). At some point, visiting the volcano stage would result in Pokemon screaming. Soon enough, the player saw himself submerged in lava. That’s several degrees of “yikes” right there.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/14-urban-legends-in-games-you-likely-believed/feed 0 380206 https://gamingbolt.com/15-times-gamers-unnecessarily-read-between-the-lines https://gamingbolt.com/15-times-gamers-unnecessarily-read-between-the-lines#respond Fri, 03 Aug 2018 10:18:05 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=347681 There are times when something happens in this industry where everyone sits up together and takes notice, collectively reacting to something excellent, or maybe something not so pleasant. Many times, these situations warrant such reactions. But then again, some times, they just don’t. As a group, we gamers have a tendency to often look at things that might be inconsequential, or nothing more or less than just plain ordinary, and project ridiculous ideas and theories upon them. Conspiracy theories, insane ramblings about storylines, reading between the lines to connect two dots that couldn’t be further apart- such things are par for the course for us.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If nothing else, it’s great fun to participate in these convoluted events and discussions, and even if you for some reason don’t do that, viewing them from a safe distance can still be perversely entertaining. In this feature, we’re going to talk about fifteen things that all of us collectively have given way more thought to than perhaps we should have.

Please note that there might be some spoilers ahead, so if you see us beginning to talk about a specific game that you may not want spoiled, watch on at your own risk.

Let’s start off with something that’s one of the hottest discussions in our industry right now.

THE DEATH OF SINGLE PLAYER GAMES

We’re now at a point where multiplayer games are a massive part of our industry. Most games need to have some sort of a competitive component to them, while many seek to go down the games-as-a-service route to be able to provide constant engagement to players. As such, the multiplayer side of our industry has moved in on some of the territory that was once dominated by single player experiences. But the notion that the growth of the online side of the industry has led to the outright death of single player games, or will at some point in the future do so, isn’t one that makes a lot of sense.

This isn’t a binary industry. Multiple types of experiences can survive and co-exist at any given time. The demand for multiplayer games continues to grow with each year, but by that some token, the demand for single player games will also always exist. Major single player games have all come out very recently, and they’ve all been solely single player experiences, and they’ve all performed very well, commercially. Can you seriously look at games like that and honestly, truly come to the conclusion that there may come a time at any point in the future when there just won’t be a place in the market for single player experiences?

Electronic Arts has now revealed their financial results for the first fiscal quarter of the year, which runs from April 1 to June 30. The company’s officials also discussed some of their achievements during this quarter, and also their plans for the rest of the fiscal year.

As compared to the previous year, there has been an increase in digital net revenue, but a drop in total net revenue and net income. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson discussed how the company has been connecting more and more players around the world through their services and games. He stated, “Across new games, new platforms and new geographies, we connected more players around the world to more great entertainment in our first quarter of FY19. We are striving to pioneer and lead for our players, with new EA SPORTS games and content on every platform, a first-of-its-kind subscription in Origin Access Premier and growing competitive gaming tournaments for FIFA and Madden NFL coming in the months ahead. With every game, every service, and every experience, we are taking steps toward our vision to connect a billion people in play.”

Furthermore, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgenson also discussed the company’s vision for the future which focuses on upcoming games and eSports competitions. He said, “We started the year strongly as we continued to deliver on our growth strategies with a focus on new genres, new geographies and building engaging live services across our portfolio to drive recurring revenue. We have a strong slate of products to launch through the rest of the fiscal year, great content coming in our live services, and are continuing to grow our esports competitions.”

The press release also included some highlights regarding the publisher’s performance during this fiscal quarter. Digital net bookings have gone up by 13% as compared to the previous year. FIFA has seen a lot of engagement around the world, with FIFA Mobile becoming very popular in China as the top downloaded game for the iOS in the country. Even in the competitive scene, FIFA has seen a lot of growth, with an 80% increase in average viewers as compared to the previous season, and over 20 million participants in the current season. The Sims 4’s playerbase has also grown significantly over the last year. Furthermore, the publisher also received more than 60 awards at this year’s E3 including, quite a few “best of” awards. In addition, EA also revealed that A Way Out has performed very well in the first quarter- read more on that here. You can check out the images below to know more about the company’s performance in this quarter and also for an overview of their upcoming releases.

But it wasn’t always this way; EA wasn’t always the top dog. As a matter of fact, its stratospheric rise to the most important third party publisher in the world can be traced to one game that it decided to release on the Apple II twenty five years ago; the later Genesis sequel would end up propelling both that console and EA itself to the top, and Madden since then has become a fixture of gaming, epitomizing sports games and annual franchises.

And yet, over the years, it has been mishandled. Even as EA’s other sports franchise, FIFA, goes from strength to strength with the developers making every installment stand out from the last, Madden itself has suffered, its developers largely coasting, the quality of the games stagnating, if not declining.

"It plays like it always has, but fittingly, considering its celebration of the franchise's silver jubilee, it plays better than any other Madden game that came before it."

For the twenty fifth anniversary of the game, EA decided to do something special- they broke the naming conventions, they decided to debut their new engine meant for sports games (the Ignite Engine) with Madden NFL 25, they fixed some longstanding complaints, and overall decided to give their once premier and still massively important sports franchise a bit of dignity for its silver jubilee. The result is a game that, while still not Madden at its peak, is one of the best American Football sims we’ve gotten from EA in years.

Of course, it still plays like Madden- at this point, you’re better off not expecting anything else, anything different. It plays like it always has, but fittingly, considering its celebration of the franchise’s silver jubilee, it plays better than any other Madden game that came before it.

I’d love to be all romantic and idealistic and put that down to EA putting in extra effort for the 25th installment, but of course we all know that that isn’t it- by nature, Madden is an iterative franchise, with each year’s game adding something new to the previous year’s installment, and each new game thus representing a culmination of everything the franchise has done up to then.

That is the case here as well- it just happens to be a happy coincidence that the ultimate Madden game as of now released for the franchise’s twenty fifth anniversary. And twenty fourth anniversary before that. And twenty third before then, and so on.

Where the actual gameplay still largely has stayed the same (the much hyped debut of the Ignite engine seems to have made a disappointingly little amount of difference to how the game actually plays, outside of slightly more realistic physics for the players and the plays), EA has tried to add some stuff to make this title stand out. For instance, there is now the  option to play as a franchise owner in the Connected Franchise mode.

"All the other modes from the previous games return, including, yes, the Madden Ultimate Team mode, so players know what they're getting into with this one."

Those of you who are expecting something like the Manager Mode in the FIFA games- in other words, more of a management sim than a sim of the actual sport itself- will probably be disappointed. Playing as an owner opens up some new sets of objectives and the like, but on the whole, the actual gameplay still remains the same.

In any case, it represents a good start and a good base for EA to build up from, and hopefully in a years, Madden NFL might have its own management mode as full featured, at the very least, as FIFA does.

All the other modes from the previous games return, including, yes, the Madden Ultimate Team mode, so players know what they’re getting into with this one. One place, however, where Madden NFL 25 has seen a change, and the final impact of this change might be debatable in the long run, are the controls.

In my opinion, the controls changes are a much needed, long awaited, welcome change, and they streamline so much of the on field play. Having said that though, there might still be legions of fans out there who have internalized the old controls, and dislike the new changes forced upon them.

Perhaps that explains the stagnancy of the franchise, even in the game that is supposed to be, above all else, a celebration of its twenty five year history. Madden at this point works, it works for its fans, its developers know that, and changing it too much would probably create more of an outcry than anything else.

"But it's fun. Even as someone who doesn't enjoy American Football the sport, the game is fun, and maybe that's what matters over all else."

Backed into that iterative corner, the developers have done an appreciably good job of making this year’s game stand out from last year’s. And yet, it feels disappointingly familiar, disappointingly by the numbers, with the only concession made to twenty five years of history being the (inordinately long) trivia peppered loading screens.

But it’s fun. Even as someone who doesn’t enjoy American Football the sport, the game is fun, and maybe that’s what matters over all else. It’s still fun to play with your buddies on a Sunday afternoon. Assuming they don’t prefer the real thing, of course, because that would suck.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Here is the statement from EA regarding FIFA 14 on the Wii U:

“Six months ago FIFA 13 was a launch title on Wii U,” an EA spokesperson told Eurogamer. “Although the game featured FIFA’s award-winning HD gameplay and innovative new ways to play, the commercial results were disappointing. We have decided not to develop FIFA 14 on Wii U.”

Electronic Arts has also said that this year’s Madden NFL title will not be released on the Wii U. This is the first time since 1991 a Madden game has failed to launch on a Nintendo console. However, EA did say that they will be releasing future Madden NFL products for Nintendo.

Let us know what you think of this dilemma in the comments below.

First off, we have the Animation System- and it’s more fluid than its predecessor by a long shot. For instance, if you have ever watched football, you will notice that players run in full stride with their heads down and not like the half witted  robots seen in previous Madden titles. The visuals themselves have been given a nice upgrade from a player detail perspective such as padding in the legs and torso portions of the body.  The stadiums themselves look very nice and a lot of work was put into their creation. We now have new sound effects and team fight songs. I also noticed that the colors were enhanced and it gives the atmosphere a bigger presence (although the crowd still looks like cardboard cutouts!).

Continuing with the presentation, we have new announcers -well, at least one Gus Johnson, as any NFL fan should know of.  He brings a level of excitement to Madden that I have never seen before. Let’s say you’re running down the field, he will yell out down the sidelines! The same applies for broken tackles, touchdowns, spectacular catches and other moments of excitement. However Chris Collinsworth makes a return as well- he was not very well liked or received since last year. Yet he is back with his recycled catchphrases and his old time football stories.

Let’s take a look at some on-the-field gameplay and what makes it great. First off, the game has been slowed down. This gives time for the play to develop so you can make your move. Say if you’re running the ball you will see where and when a possible hole may develop to rocket through. Now if your passing, it’s alot easier to identify a Receivers break point on the ball, you can also tell if the defense is playing man to man or zone coverage.

There are a lot of things that haven’t changed, gameplay wise, as well, such as defensive backs intercepting your pass when not looking at the ball (any Madden NFL player knows of what I speak and the horrors they have been put through).  Now for a huge gripe- the Strategy Pad. Using this to command your O and D Lines has never been more obnoxious. It requires tapping multiple times on the Directional Pad to get the desired outcome and remembering what it is what is near impossible. However a fix was made where you can use the previous installments system and it really is good to have it as back up, so fear not.

The new play calling system it has been revamped, and I hear it’s not well liked. However, we enjoyed as instead of killing the clock looking for plays, my Coach auto picks a play based on my yardage needed and situation based on time or timeouts left. You will hear him describe the plays through your Headset if alone and plugged in. Game-flow works well on offense, however on defense the system just does not work well at all. Your coach will pick plays that are mediocre at best- you will be burned alot, so that’s why we just picked our own plays while on defense.

One more big addition to the game that seems to be the most popular mode is Online Team Play. This mode is made for teamwork and people who like to communicate. You play as a team of three versus three you have the ability to be a receiver, running back or quarterback on offense. On the defensive side of the ball you can play the D-Line, Line Backers or Corner Backs. Now if you just can’t make up your mind you just pick any position. You will play a normal game just as you would in your Franchise or Play Now mode. The presentation stays the same and it is a very rewarding experience. Madden Ultimate team also makes a return and hardly any changes have been made it’s still very bland. Superstar Mode also makes its return once again no changes still the same old boring time.

Overall, Madden NFL 11 is great game. There are many features that will have you pleased and wanting more after your first game I would recommend this to any football fan looking for an authentic football experience.

Credit goes to Michael Kozick

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.