EA and ESPN Content Integration Unveiled

[bapenguin]

EA Sports and ESPN announced some of their plans today for content integration in their upcoming sports titles. And get this. It's freaking awesome. (http://www.gamegossip.com/comment.php?id=16379)"EA and ESPN are creating one place, inside our EA SPORTS games, where anyone who is passionate about real sports and sports videogames can come for their ultimate sports fix," said Todd Sitrin, vice president of marketing for EA. "The first implementation can be found in EA SPORTS' MVP 06 NCAA Baseball where gamers can receive ESPN SportsCenter radio highlights, real-time scores, and top stories from the world of sports that update seamlessly while they play; it's the first step in bringing together the worlds of interactive gaming and actual sports," Sitrin added.

Realtime sports scores and news in a ticker while playings sports games? Sign me up! On another note, a college baseball game?

[Atorak]

I would love the actual audio commentary from SportsSenter downloaded/streamed to my 360 so I can hear all the highlights of the previous day when I turn on my box. Now THAT would be cool, there would be no need to actually watch SportsCenter!

And maybe they only do highlights from the sport you are playing? Oooo, how about video snippets from the actual show?

Ha, I better stop now.

[atrus20]

More fluff to take away from actual game play. Whoop-dee-do!
"We know our game sucks but look the Yankees are winning!"

[phantomhitman]

official statement just released by me:
EA cannot be used in the same line, or surrounding lines, as awesome, good, fair, or nice.
Thanks.
i miss my 2k football :(

[Mac]

More fluff to take away from actual game play. Whoop-dee-do!
"We know our game sucks but look the Yankees are winning!"

Christ, look at the negativity here.

[Derwin]

Yes, another college baseball game. And my brother will continue to lap every one up like a starving cat after he buys the same game for both PS2 AND XBox.

[insidious]

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could simulate a baseball season, playing a particular ballclub, and mimic the schedule for a particular year?

The updates could relay league standings, game results, injuries, and statistics to the videogame itself instead of operating off of the "one year delay" we see in titles today.

[Kefkataran]

Not a fan of EA or sports games in general, but I've gotta admit that this is a pretty cool-sounding feature. Can't make up for weak gameplay by any means, but it's certainly nice.

[MosBen]

Yeah, this doesn't strike me as a really mind blowing feature, though certainly nice. At least they're actually going to use the license for something new now as opposed to just sticking their tongue out at 2K.

[Double T]

I was getting sport scores in NBA LIve 2005 on Xbox. how is this new?

[Cyrano]

Yes, another college baseball game. And my brother will continue to lap every one up like a starving cat after he buys the same game for both PS2 AND XBox.

I'm pretty sure this is the first college baseball game ever. At least that's what I've read in previews. Take 2 has the exclusive license for MLB this year, so EA had to come up with something.

[MajSheppard]

Death to EA.

[cjrizzo]

Yawn. If I want scores, I'll watch ESPN. If I want to play EA sports games, I'll play them. I think that this is just "nice to have" integration - try reengineering some of your sports games and actually improve them, EA!

[KDups]

Man you guys, maybe you haven't played MVP or Fight Night lately but they're both solid series in terms of gameplay and features. And why would you rip on a convenient feature like this? If I'm playing Fight Night I won't have to flip between the TV and the game, I can get updates scores and highlights seamlessly. Why would you hate on this kind of convenience?

Oh yeah...

[vivafletcher]

I'm not really a fan of EA but I don't attack them for no reason, either. It's their job to hype whatever features they have to offer.

I just don't really get why this feature matters at all. I can already integrate real-time, play-by-play highlights of local games with my video game playing: I turn on the radio. If another game is on that I really care about...I'll play later and watch the game. Or hit "pause" on my video game. Or TiVo the other game.

But if some folks find this to be somehow useful or interesting, more power to 'em. I'm sort of an old-school gamer anyway. I don't need extra features not associated with gaming. I'd prefer the PSP NOT play movies, MP3s or remind me when to take my clothes out of the dryer. I just want the thing to play great games. That's it. I don't need my phone to play my music, take photos, schedule my dentist appointment or play 50 Cent to callers who dial my number. I just want perfect reception and no dropped calls.

On second thought, maybe I'm just old.

[jadkins555]

This news is really old. IGN had an article in their MVP Baseball preview (http://ps2.ign.com/articles/676/676819p1.html) over a month ago.

[GWhite]

I just don't really get why this feature matters at all. I can already integrate real-time, play-by-play highlights of local games with my video game playing: I turn on the radio. If another game is on that I really care about...I'll play later and watch the game. Or hit "pause" on my video game. Or TiVo the other game.

I think you are on to something here though you might not know it. A very interesting feature that could be implemented is for live players to compete at the same time as a real team with the same roster and whatnot.

Better yet create some sort of hybrid fantasy league.

This could carry over into quite a few different genres but sports would be the easiest, due to their relatively unchanging assets.

[amusedtoe]

Grabbed NCAA Baseball tonight, can't believe I hadn't realized it was coming out already really thought it was going to be more Marchish. Hopefully they took full advantage of the license and it can live up to the presentation of NFL 2K5. I swear, even after hundreds of games there'd be times where I wouldn't be paying full attention and expect the game to go to commercial break or something. That alone speaks volumes to how well it captured the feel of watching a game.

[ShankTheChicken]

But if some folks find this to be somehow useful or interesting, more power to 'em. I'm sort of an old-school gamer anyway. I don't need extra features not associated with gaming. I'd prefer the PSP NOT play movies, MP3s or remind me when to take my clothes out of the dryer. I just want the thing to play great games. That's it. I don't need my phone to play my music, take photos, schedule my dentist appointment or play 50 Cent to callers who dial my number. I just want perfect reception and no dropped calls.

On second thought, maybe I'm just old.

You're not alone, viva. I'm not too crazy about combo gadgets myself.

That aside, I think this feature is okay as long as the gameplay can keep moving right through it. A ticker at the bottom would actually be pretty useful. I just don't want to see this become ESPN popping up a PiP window in the corner of my screen to give me news.

[bjornbarspingvinen]

I can help feeling that 2k had great ESPN integration (great ingame version of the broadcast, online rankings that matched espn etc), and made it good. Then the wallet monkeys of EA comes and screw things up. I can´t help it , but EA is just an asshole company (unless you are a shareholder)