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.

EA Sports games are fairly popular. They receive extensive time during EA’s pressers and form a significant amount of revenue for the company – look no further than Ultimate Team Mode which earns roughly $650 million per year among various franchises.

That being said, it’s somewhat odd that FIFA is the only available EA Sports title on PC. EA Canada VP Matt Bilbey explained to Game Informer that it’s a matter of demand. “There’s still the high demand for FIFA on the PC globally because of the global appetite for the game.

“I think that’s less so with Madden, but I think if that changes and an opportunity presents itself, I think we would definitely leverage the opportunity.”

Cam Weber, VP of EA Tiburon noted that the Madden series “used to be a good business,” until sales declined on PC. “Then the compounding problem is that I guess in the last four or five years…as we get away from PC development, it becomes more and more difficult to get back to it.” That being said, the publisher is interested in supporting the PC yet again.

Happy with winning, Brodeur stated that, “The support I’ve received throughout the cover vote campaign has been incredible. My kids pushed me to participate in the campaign, and they are really excited to see their dad on the cover of the game they play all the time. I want to thank all the NHL fans who campaigned and voted for me.”

The total number of votes for the campaign managed to cross 22 million in EA’s second annual cover athlete contest. NHL 14 will be available on September 10th in North America and by September 13th worldwide for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy–a series that has been relevant for decades–had an unlikely inspiration for its battle system. What could it be? Well the last thing on your mind would be something sport related. And even weirder is the fact that it’s actually American football–NHL.

Final Fantasy old school battle system

Uh, okay.

Square Enix’s Hiroyuki Ito–a legend–originally thought about making a creative battle system for the NES, and was actually inspired by American Football, he revealed to 1UP.

“It was just a logical process, where I thought, ‘How can I create an efficient battle system for a role-playing game?’ That’s the answer that I came to. At the root of it all, though, there’s a basic kind of system that comes from professional sports… NFL Football is probably the closest thing.”

Well that’s just shocking in a way. I have no words. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

EA Sports is back once again with NHL ’10. Now before you start with the moans and groans, gimme a chance, it’s not as bad as you may expect it to be.

Honestly, I’m not a huge hockey fan like I was back about 15 or 20 years ago. Boston Bruins was my team and [;ayers like Cam Neely, Ray Bouque, Don Sweeny, Andy Moog, Ted Donato, and a few others were in my opinion the boys to beat. Well, just about most, if not all have since retired or are on the brink of. So, if you were ask me to name two people on the current Bruins’ roster, I’d give you nothing more than a blank stare.

As well as being absent from following professional hockey I have also been absent in the annual edition of EA Sports’ NHL games, I have to say, EA has advanced beyond a point I ever imagined it could for a hockey game.

Do I have something in my teeth? Do I HAVE teeth ?

First thing I noticed when I fired up the game was the graphics, graphics were sharp and everything from people in the crowd to the lines and logo on the ice looked really sharp. The game starts off with a small tutorial on how to preform wrist shots, slap shots  and how to aim your shots. Then you get a lesson in a new feature for fighting. In past editions it was always a view of both players facing off toe-to-toe, the angle wold usually zoom in on these two combatants, but not like it does in this ’10 edition. When intimidated ot to try to start a fight, you simply press the ‘Y’  (on Xbox 360) or triangle button (on PS3) – once the fight is about to begin, the view kinda spirals around then ends up with you in a first-person view, like a hockey version of Fight Night Round 4. Fighting controls are pretty simple, simply use the right analog stick to to move side to side, or up and down to tug on your opponent’s jersey, and use the left analog stick up and down to throw punches.

The action can get intense

Now when I normally play a new sports game, I jump right in and select my favorite team and start the season. I figured if it takes me a few games to get the controlls down, out of a 82 or 84 game season I should be able to hold my own. So I chose my team from the old days, the Boston Bruins and I actually reconize 1 name on the roster, Zdeno Chara. As far as the rest, the names could be made up for all I know. Game starts with your team walking from the dressing room through the hall, then stops just before going out onto the ice. The lights are down, the music is pumping, the fans are going crazy for their home team, lights are flashing while the team logo is projected onto the ice spinning around – then your team hits the ice for the pre-game skate warm up. From there on it’s Bill Clement & Gary Thorne provide the color commentary through out the match up.

Some of the newer features added, preisisoin passing. A pass to a teammate doesn’t always go tape to tape, so player’s AI is advance to where players will use their skates to kick the puck ahead to gain control with their stick. A “Battle for the Cup” mode was added, allowing you to jump right ito the play-offs and earn the coveted Lord Stanley’s Cup. My favorite feature “Battle Along the Boards”  allows you to pin the puck against the boards in hopes to draw in the opponent and hopefully to be able to kick out the puck to a team mate and possibly set up a play down the ice. Another new feature is “spectacular goals.”  Players will do almost everything short of taking their lives to put that puck in the net. You’ll see players will one-time loose pucks, shoot from their knees and and will attempt to bat pucks out of the air. I’ve scored a few goals like this, looks really cool on the replay – although the computer did it and scored and it clearly was high-stickig, but no call.

Will this go in?

Now overall, my favorite feature is the “Be A Pro” mode. In this mode, you creater you’re own skater. You chose the position, jersey number, where he’s from, lefty or righty, pick out hs equipment, everything right down to scars or freckles on his face. From there you take part in the Prospect Game where the top North American prospects take on the top Worl d Prospects in one game. Now just like as if it were actually YOU on the team, you only control your player and only when he’s on the ice. Otherwise you get a great view of the game from the bench (or penalty box if that’s the type of game you play. You get scored on a number of things, obviously it helps to score and at least show your a team player and get an assist or two, but they also look at how well you play your position on offense & defense. After the game you then enter the NHL draft. The better you do in the game, the higher you’ll be in thedraft order. I was taken 8th myself.

Now, just because you’re a “NHL’er” doesn’t mean you have a permanent locker in the dressing room. The team’s general manager gives you a shot and evaluats your performance the decids whether or not you earned a spot on the roster or do need more work and at to report to the team’s minor league or AHL team to broaden your skills. I was drafted my the Tampa Bay Lightning and after 4 games in the NHL, even though I was second on the team in scoring, I was sent to the Norfolk Admerials and put on the third scoring line. I worked my way up and lead the team in scoring and have een moved to the 2nd scoring line.  This makes the game that more fun in my opinion as you’re trying to score and set up others on your team to score so you could one day be back in the NHL arenas. Another thing that makes this game ineresting to me that while I’m on the AHL roster, I actually live real close to two different AHL arenas, so it’s pretty cool when my team is on the read at one of these venues.

All in all, NHL ’10 is a lot of fun, maybe because I’ve been out of the loop for so long, I really can’t say for sure. But the “Be A Pro” feature has got me hooked. It kind of incorporates a sports game into a RPG style game.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.