EA Sportsis a division ofElectronic Artsthat develops and publishessports video games.Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such asEA Sports FC,PGA Tour,NHL,NBA Live,andMadden NFL.
 Logo since 2019 | |
| Formerly | Electronic Arts Sports Network (1991–1993) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Daryl Holt (COOandVP) Cam Weber (president) |
| Products |
|
| Parent | Electronic Arts |
| Subsidiaries |
|
| Website | ea.com/sports |
Most games under this brand are developed byEA Vancouver,the Electronic Arts studio inBurnaby,British Columbiaas well asEA Orlando(formerly Tiburon Studios) inOrlando, Florida.The main rival to EA Sports is2K Sports.Notably, until 2018, both companies competed over the realm of NBA games, with 2K releasing theNBA 2Kseries.Konamiis its rival in association football games with their own series,eFootball.
For several years after the brand was created, all EA Sports games began with a stylized five-second video introducing the brand with Andrew Anthony voicing its motto, "It's in the game", meaning that its games aimed at simulating the actual sports as authentically and completely as possible;[1]Anthony was never compensated for his appearance and did it merely as a favour to a friend.[2]
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 best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most of the other companies abandon them. For example,FIFA 98,Madden NFL 98,NBA Live 98,andNHL 98were released for theSega Genesisand theSuper NESthroughout 1997;Madden NFL 2005andFIFA 2005hadPlayStationreleases in 2004 (FIFA 2005andMadden NFL 2005were also the last two PlayStation titles to be released); andNCAA Football 08had anXboxrelease in 2007.Madden NFL 08also hadXboxandGameCubereleases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, withMadden NFL 09following as the final Xbox title. Additionally,NASCAR Thunder 2003andNASCAR Thunder 2004were released not only for thePlayStation 2,but for the originalPlayStationas well. EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor EnglishFootball League TwoteamSwindon Town F.C.from the 2009–10 season onward and theEA Sports Cupin theRepublic of Ireland.In July 2021, hackers who breached Electronic Arts in June 2021, have released the entire cache of stolen data after failing to extort the company and later sell the stolen files to a third-party buyer.[3]Prior to the start of the2023–24 season,EA Sports signed with the Spanish football league association,Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesionalto sponsor bothfirstandsecond tiercompetitions which were under the title name, "LaLiga EA Sports" and "LaLiga Hypermotion" for five seasons with the €30 million a year deal.[4]
In June 2023, EA announced a restructuring of the company, having EA Entertainment and EA Sports as two separate divisions inside the business, with Cam Weber becoming the president of the division.[5]
History
Exclusivity deals
In 2003, EA purchased the license toNASCARfor six years, ending competition fromPapyrusandInfogrames.The NASCAR license expired in 2009 and the NASCAR license would be owned byPolyphony Digitalfor theGran Turismoseriesstarting withGran Turismo 5,and alsoEutechnyxforNASCAR The Gameseriesfrom 2011 to 2015.
On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with theNational Football League(NFL) and its Players' Union for five years.[6][7][8]On February 12, 2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the2012 NFL season.[9]
Less than a month after the NFL Exclusive deal on January 11, 2005, EA Sports signed a four-year exclusive deal with theArena Football League(AFL).[10]
On April 11, 2005, theNational 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.[11]
EA lost the rights forMajor League Baseball(MLB) games to2K Sportsin 2005, ending EA's MVP series; however, EA madeNCAA Baseballgames 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 andESPNsigned a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games fromSegaand2K.[12][13][14][15]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 asPardon the Interruption).
The federal district caseO'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'sNCAA Basketball 09when it was first filed in 2009, leading EA to abandon theNCAA Basketballline 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 theNCAA Footballseries, the NCAA terminated its license agreement with EA in 2013 due to several factors, including theO'Bannoncase as well as issues over comparable licensing fees to the professional sports games.[16][17]
On June 4, 2012, EA signed a "multi-year, multi-product" partnership with theUltimate Fighting Championship,taking over fromTHQ.[18]
Following the release ofRory McIlroy PGA Tourin 2015, EA Sports announced that they would end itsPGA Tourseries after 25 years, with the said game was pulled from digital storefronts in May 2018.2K Sportsannounced that they would assume their licensing agreement with thePGA Tourbeginning with the release ofThe Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tourin 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 typicalEA Maddentitles, including for mobile games.[19]
In February 2021, EA announced it was returning to college sports with aEA College Footballgame to be released within the next couple of years. As planned, 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 theCollegiate Licensing Company,as at the time of the announcement, the NCAA had not yet reached definitive rules on appropriate payment to players for their likeliness.[16]If such rules are established by the time of the game's release, EA said they would then include player likenesses. However,Notre Damestated that until such rules are in place, they declined to be part of EA's game.[20]At the time of this announcement, EA stated they had no other agreements with other NCAA sports.[16]Later that month, EA purchasedCodemasters,developers of theF1series, therefore reclaiming the rights to publish F1 games.
EA acquired Metalhead Software in May 2021, the developers of theSuper Mega Baseballseries. EA stated that they are looking to taking the core aspects of that series to integrate with licensing from MLB to publish a licensed baseball game again in the future.[21]
EA has had deals withFIFAto use the FIFA name and branding for itsEA FIFAseries, in additional to over 300 separate deals with the leagues and teams for their names, logos, and player likeness rights. According toThe New York Timesin October 2021, FIFA had started discussions with EA in the prior two years on renewing these rights towards an exclusivity deal but with several caveats that has made negotiations difficult. Among FIFA's requests was increasing the exclusive license fee to$1 billionover each four-year period betweenFIFA World Cups,and limiting the scope of this exclusivity to association football simulation games, while EA wanted to expand the branding into new video game ventures such as esports using the game, an area that FIFA wanted to either keep to themselves or license to other developers to expand their own revenues.[22]FIFA issued a statement following this report that stated they had reached an impasse with EA on the negotiations. FIFA's position was that it has "a duty to support its 211 member associations to fully capitalise on the inherent opportunities that have been emerging over the recent years. As part of this strategy, FIFA also commits to continuing to organise skill-based eSports tournaments under the umbrella of the recently launched FIFAe competition structure and consumer brand." To that end, FIFA believed it was necessary that any license agreement "must involve more than one party controlling and exploiting all rights".[23]EA has considered that abandoning the FIFA name would have little impact on the player experience since the league and team licenses would be unaffected. EA had trademarkedEA Sports FCas a potential replacement name for the series.[22]The last game released under theFIFAbanner was 2022'sFIFA 23.[24]
On March 2, 2022, EA, along with FIFA, NHL and the NHL Players' Association, the IIHF and F1 announced that they removed any of their names and logo licensing rights involving the Russian and Belarusian teams in bothFIFA 22andNHL 22,citing the recent events related toRussia's invasion of Ukraine.The removals from both games also affected the development ofF1 22;withNikita Mazepinof theHaas F1 Teambeing replaced byKevin Magnussen,theRussian Grand Prixbeing removed from the lineup, and the logos of Mazepin's sponsorUralkalibeing removed.[25]
PC games
For the 2003 game year, and from years 2006 to 2008, EA published compilations of EA Sports titles for Windows called theEA Sports Collection;for example, the 2006 lineup was called theEA Sports 06 Collection.[26][27][28][29]
In June 2009, EA Sports announced that for 2010, the gamesMadden NFL,NCAA Football,NASCAR,NHL,NBA Live,andTiger Woods PGA Tourwould not be shipped for PC platforms.[30]The NCAA Football series had not been released on the PC since 1998, theTiger Woodsseries' last PC game wasTiger Woods PGA Tour 08,theNASCARseries had not had a PC version sinceNASCAR SimRacingin 2005, and the lastMaddenseries to be released on PC wasMadden NFL 08.TheNHLseries' last PC game wasNHL 09.Likewise,NBA Live 08was the final PC version forNBA Live.
The head of EA Sports at that time,Peter Moore,citedpiracyand 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."[31]
However, theFIFAseries continues to be released on PC, and for the first time since 2008,Madden NFL 19was released for PC. Following EA's purchase of Codemasters, theF1series would be published by EA on PC.
PlayStation Home
This sectionmay betoo longand excessively detailed.(May 2016) |
On April 23, 2009, EA Sports released the long-awaited "EA Sports Complex"spacefor thePlayStation 3's online community-based service,PlayStation Homein the European and North American versions.[32]In the Complex, users can play a series of mini-games, includingpoker,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.[33]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 thegame spaceforFight Night Round 4called "Club Fight Night" featuring a mini-game called Club DJ and coming soon, robot boxing.[34]
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 fromFight 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 releasedNFLjerseys 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 supportNational 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.[35]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 4producers 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.[36]On January 7, 2010, EA Sports releasedNCAAcollege football jerseys in the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex.[37]
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 similarEA Accessservice.[38]
Technology
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 98was shortly followed byWorld Cup 98,all in the wake ofFIFA Soccer Managerin 1997 (as EA has owned the license for theFIFA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mega Baseball | Baseball | Super Mega Baseball 4(2023) | ||
| Madden NFL | American football | John Madden Football(1988) | Madden NFL 24(2023) | Madden NFL 25(2024) |
| NHL | Ice hockey | NHL Hockey(1991) | NHL 24(2023) | |
| EA Sports FC | Association football | EA Sports FC Mobile(2023) | EA Sports FC 24(2023) | EA Sports FC 25(2024) |
| UFC | Mixed martial arts | EA Sports UFC(2014) | EA Sports UFC 5(2023) | |
| F1 | Formula One | Original:F1 2000(2000) Codemasters:F1 2009(2009) |
Original:F1 Career Challenge(2003) Codemasters:F1 24(2024) |
|
| PGA Tour | Golf | PGA Tour Golf(1990) | EA Sports PGA Tour(2023) | |
| WRC | World Rally Championship | EA Sports WRC(2023) | ||
| NCAA/College Football | American football (College) | Bill Walsh College Football(1993) | College Football 25(2024)[39] | |
Former
References
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External links
