EA Sports extends NFL deal through 2012 season

Just over three years ago, Electronic Arts tackled the sports genre by announcing it had signed
a multiyear exclusivity deal with the National Football League and the NFL Players, the players’ union. Under the agreement, EA Sports’ Madden NFL franchise was the sole official licensee for the US’s most popular sport, forcing rival 2K Sports to get creative with its own pro-football series.

Today, EA Sports announced that it has extended its contract with the NFL and NFL Players through the 2012 season. That means the Redwood City, California-based publisher will retain exclusive game rights to all NFL teams, stadiums, and player likenesses and information until the Super Bowl XLVII champion is crowned in 2013.

Though Madden NFL is its most famous franchise, EA Sports also publishes a variety of other NFL games, including NFL Street and NFL Tour. However, part of the renewal agreement is to “look at different ways to bring more consumers in,” according to EA Sports president Peter Moore.

One way Moore is hoping to lure more Americans into the Madden fold is through the incorporation of content from the NFL Films production company and the NFL Network cable channel into the “Madden game experience.” Other new EA Sports initiatives include a continuation of the “family play” option for Wii games, expanded investment in the wildly popular fantasy football phenomenon, and undefined initiatives to court football fans during the spring and summer months.

“Both EA Sports and the NFL agree that we need to look at different ways to bring more consumers in,” Moore told If Its Games. “Traditionally, when the Super Bowl’s over, our football business is over, and there’s research that shows there are millions of people out there that can’t get enough football 12 months a year.”

EA Sports’ newest attempt to court those football fans, NFL Tour, wasn’t treated kindly by critics but is “doing OK” at retail, according to Moore. However, the former Xbox 360 marketing chief isn’t satisfied with just pumping out more NFL Tour or NFL Street. “I think we need to be more innovative,” he said. “For years, we’ve done Street versions of games, and I think it’s time we looked at online models and perhaps doing something that’s truly contra-seasonal.”

According to Moore, one promising possibility for expanding EA Sports’ NFL portfolio is to resurrect the NFL Head Coach series, which debuted in 2006 but has laid fallow ever since. “Things like Head Coach…well, for me, I love the X’s and O’s,” he said. “It’s something that I would love to do if I wasn’t in this business. When we look at the success of the Football Manager titles in Europe, there’s no reason we can’t do the same thing here. We’ve kind of tiptoed into it so far, but I think you’ll see continued investment in things like Head Coach.”

But although he was quite loquacious about the renewal of the NFL deal, Moore was downright reticent about EA Sports’ plans for its other exclusive US football agreements with the NCAA and the Arena Football League. “We’ll get to those when we get to those,” he said.

PSP God of War sporting gold Chains

Kratos returns!

Lately, the PlayStation Portable has been getting more attention for its multimedia capabilities such as Skype VOIP functionality than its games. That will soon change, though, as one of the platform’s highest profile games to date has gone gold.

This afternoon on the official PlayStation Blog, Ready at Dawn senior producer Eric Koch announced that development of God of War: Chains of Olympus is complete. With its gold master now en route to the factory, nothing stands in the way of the $39.99, M-for-Mature-rated game arriving in North America on Tuesday, March 4.

Chains of Olympus is the third installment in the critically lionized God of War series, which began on the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and returned to the console in 2007. However, as outlined in If Its Games’s previous coverage, it is set prior to its two predecessors, and follows the unstoppable Spartan warrior Kratos’ rampage after his family is killed. The series will continue with God of War III, which is currently in development for the PlayStation 3.

Spore planted on September 7, coming to PS3/360?

After more than a year of delays and nearly three years in development, Spore finally has a release date. Will Wright’s anticipated sim game will arrive on the DS, PC, and Macintosh during the weekend of September 7, according to publisher EA. The game has not yet been officially rated or priced, but online retailers are listing it for $49.99.

Spore in Sept.!

Check out the launch-date trailer for Will Wright’s latest.
Watch | Download

The Wii version of Spore, which was reconfirmed at an EA analysts’ event today, has not yet been dated. However, it may not be the only version of the ambitious evolution-civilization-space-exploration sim to hit next-generation consoles. Speaking to analysts, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said that Spore is “already in development” for the newest generation of consoles, “Wii included.” He did not specify further platforms, and an EA reps speaking to If Its Games would say the company is “considering all options in the console space.”

Designed by Sims creator Will Wright, Spore is among the most ambitious simulation games ever planned. Beginning at the start of evolution, it follows life from single-celled organisms through the dawn of civilization. From there, it follows the player’s fully customizable species as it climbs up the technological ladder all the way to space exploration, which allows it to colonize other planets.

In addition to dropping hints about new platforms, Gibeau also hinted that Spore might not be entirely free of charge. He told analysts that the online mode of the game could be an “opportunity” for an “expanded digital revenue stream.” He did not elaborate if said stream entailed microtransactions, in-game advertising, subscription fees, or any combination of the three.

For more on Spore, check out If Its Games’s extensive previous coverage.

Smash Bros. Brawl busts million mark

Multiple delays for Super Smash Bros. Brawl haven’t exactly deadened consumer enthusiasm for the anticipated title. According to a Reuters report citing figures from publisher Enterbrain, the game sold 1.08 million copies in Japan on its first 11 days of sale.

That sets a record pace for Japanese Wii software sales, according to the article. Wii Sports (which is sold as a stand-alone game in Japan but bundled with the hardware in other territories) managed the million milestone 11 weeks after release, while the more recent Wii Fit amassed that many sales in its first seven weeks on the market. After its first week on sale, Super Smash Bros. Brawl had racked up sales of nearly 820,000, according to Media Create.

The multimascot Nintendo fighter will get a chance to match those brawny sales figures when it sees a North American release on March 9, after being delayed from its originally announced December 2007 launch, as well as a follow-up February date.

New Burnout, Skate on the way

Electronic Arts’ open-world racing game Burnout Paradise still has that new-car smell, and the broken bones of Skate have barely had time to knit, but the publisher is already looking ahead to the next installments in those franchises.

In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would “see extension” in the publisher’s fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn’t specify whether the extensions would come in the form of proper sequels, side products (such as Burnout Legends and Burnout Dominator), or some other form.

In contrast to Burnout, Skate is a relatively new property. The series debuted last September as part of EA’s attempt to break Activision’s hold on the skateboarding genre with longtime champ Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

“Tony Hawk has been the Madden of that category for a very long time, and our performance in this first year of skateboarding has greatly exceeded my expectations,” Gibeau told investors. “I know they’re going to come back and be competitive, but these are the fights that EA knows how to win.”

Through December, the industry-tracking NPD Group reports that Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground outsold Skate when all versions are taken into account. However, EA’s new franchise was released on only two platforms compared to Tony Hawk’s five, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Skate both bested their same-system counterparts in sales. EA’s success in establishing the Skate franchise appears to have spurred Activision to action; the Tony Hawk publisher told investors last week that it would be reengineering its flagship skating franchise, giving the brand a new direction.

Another new franchise EA is prepping a sequel for is Mass Effect, which was announced for the PC today. From the very first time now EA-owned developer BioWare showed it off in 2005, the role-playing game franchise was touted as a trilogy. Gibeau’s presentation today suggested it may not end there. He told analysts that it “will be a franchise for [EA] for a very long time.” He also said that going forward, EA will take over publishing duties on the Mass Effect franchise from Microsoft Game Studios, which handled the game’s initial release on the Xbox 360.

Gibeau also mentioned the next installment in another of EA’s racing franchises, Need for Speed. While a new Need for Speed in development isn’t surprising (the franchise has been annualized since 2002’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2), Gibeau did give the analysts an early look at the direction EA would be taking with the next installment of the series.

Noting that sales of last year’s Need for Speed ProStreet didn’t live up to EA’s hopes for the game, Gibeau said he thinks it was because the series drifted too far from what consumers expected. ProStreet had dropped the tuner culture and police evasion aspects of previous installments in favor of perfectly legit closed track racing. For the next Need for Speed, Gibeau promised that the series would be getting back to its roots with a number of features, including open-world racing and a new highway battle mode.

Lost Odyssey Review

Lost Odyssey doesn’t push any role-playing game boundaries, though that won’t come as a shock to anyone familiar with Mistwalker’s previous game, Blue Dragon. However, in the case of the developer’s newest effort, that isn’t always a bad thing. Yes, there are times when it feels like more of a relic than it does a true next-generation game, particularly in light of the tweaks made by other modern Japanese RPGs such as Persona 3 and Eternal Sonata. Yet while it may borrow liberally from the genre’s older gems, Lost Odyssey is a game worth playing, most notably for its fascinating story and its brooding protagonist, Kaim.

Jansen is the perfect foil to Kaim’s constant seriousness.

Kaim, along with several other characters in Lost Odyssey, is immortal, though the origin of his immortality is left purposefully unclear at the outset of the game. It’s hard to get a handle on Kaim at first; he’s the strong, silent type, the prototypical moping hero with a soulful scowl and a deep well of unfathomable secrets. The game takes its time with his character development, but as information slowly unfolds, it’s hard not to empathize with his internal struggles. But he doesn’t struggle alone, and Lost Odyssey doesn’t neglect the rest of its fascinating cast. Lady pirate Seth, kind queen Ming, the noble Tolten, and several others provide ample companionship, and their lives intersect in some surprising–and not so surprising–ways. It’s a serious tale, but comic relief is plentiful, and most of it comes from inadvertent spy Jansen, a flamboyant ladies’ man who manages to be both annoying and irresistibly charming.

Lost Odyssey is about its characters, not about its plot. In fact, the main story follows a more or less predictable path, pitting you against a villain you spend half the game knowing very little about. No, it’s about self-discovery and the timelessness of the relationships we develop. Kaim and his immortal companions unlock memories during the course of the game, and they are presented in simple but effective sequences in which the memory is recounted via stylized text, accompanied by pretty static images and subtle music cues. It makes for a good amount of reading, but if you skip past these memories, you will miss the game’s most touching and heartfelt moments. The main story doesn’t often reach those same heights, and a good number of the game’s countless cutscenes ramble aimlessly and end up feeling like filler. Yet Lost Odyssey’s concluding hours, as predictable as they are, make you feel, and that alone makes this a saga worth experiencing.

This yarn takes place in a fully realized fantasy world in the midst of revolution both political and magical. On your journey you’ll certainly see your share of clich

Universe at War Designer Diary - Universal Balance and Structure

Released at the tail end of last year, the real-time strategy game Universe at War: Earth Assault depicted a struggle for global conquest between three very different factions. Now developer Petroglyph–the studio behind the popular Star Wars real-time strategy game Empire at War–is hard at work bringing Universe at War to the Xbox 360. Here to talk about the game’s transition to Xbox Live–not to mention the balancing process that brought it to release in the first place–is Petroglyph’s lead designer of multiplayer and balance, Chris Rubyor.

Universal Balance and Structure

By Chris Rubyor
Lead Multiplayer/Balance Designer, Petroglyph

First, let me start by saying balancing an RTS is no easy task. The initial launch balance alone can take up to a year depending on how the factions are designed. The best you can hope for is hitting the 90 percent-balanced range. When an RTS game ships, it is safe to say that there will always be a series of patches to fix the remaining issues the hardcore fans find. My job is to get the unit balance and economy systems as tight as possible, so casual players can still have an enjoyable experience without ever having to download a patch.

In the early stages of development for Universe at War, the design team created three very important balance goals. First, every faction must feel and play differently. Second, unit combos and mixing are vital to mid- and late-game strategies. Third, pacing must feel good for both PC and console players. Whenever we found ourselves straying from the path, it was this set of goals that helped to center our focus.

The game’s three factions are distinctly different in terms of resource-gathering and offensive capabilities.

Now, how do you get RTS factions to play and feel different? It’s all in the design and theme of the faction, and of course, time. From the beginning of development, we knew Novus was going to play fast but be more fragile than the other sides. The Hierarchy was all about mobility and power. For the Masari, we went with a more traditional RTS design, but added a modal twist that allows players to alter offensive and defensive states through the use of light and dark powers.

At the very core of UAW, the unit balance boils down to some very simple methodology. Is unit “X” good against vehicles, aircraft, or walkers? Is unit “Y” good at destroying structures or infantry? Before we started balance, a matrix with this information was created for all the units found in UAW and used to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each faction. This chart was instrumental to the core balance of UAW. It helped to ensure units didn’t spill out beyond their desired roles. The matrix helped to flush potential issues with early-, mid-, and late-game tactics. It was also instrumental in helping the balance team find unit combinations that needed strengthening.

When it came time to get our hands dirty and start the long process of balancing, we decided to go back to our C&C roots. Instead of crunching the numbers, we went with a “how do the units and combinations feel in combat” approach. Do they feel overly powerful? Can they be countered? Is the unit fun to use? Visually, does the unit’s damage match the graphical effects? Most importantly, does the balance fit the faction theme? To help this process, our code team had multiplayer up and running very early in the project. This was crucial to obtaining feedback quickly on unit functionality and balance. So for 10 months we played multiplayer games daily, taking in feedback and adjusting units.

The final element to our balance efforts and a concern for the console was pacing. We knew that spammy gameplay and quick build times wouldn’t work on the console, regardless of how good the interface is. At the same time, we didn’t want the game to run like a turtle in a rabbit race. After months of experimentation and testing we were able to home in on what worked for each faction. If I had to come up with a comparison so that gamers could visualize what we did, think of it as a cross between C&C Generals and Starcraft. This encompasses build times, unit speeds, popcap, economy, and the time it takes for units to be destroyed. Honestly, it’s eerie how the pacing and balance seem to come together. Maybe it’s because we were so focused on how the units felt and played in combat versus crunching the numbers on a spreadsheet.

Rubyor says balancing the three distinct factions against one another was no easy task.

Overall, the design team feels the balance and pacing in UAW hit the 90 percent mark and caters to both console and PC gamers. We are really happy with how everything turned out. I would also like to mention, since the PC version was released earlier, 360 players will get the benefit of four months’ worth of map and mission polish, camera zoom tweaks, and unit balance updates.

Now, let’s dive into some the multiplayer features console players can expect to see when they log into Live.

When we created the matchmaking structure for UAW, it was important to us that the system was easy to navigate, allowed players to browse and join games seamlessly, and offered some fun features. Also, the multiplayer environment needed to have a positive feel so that both console and PC players could coexist in one happy virtual universe.

As a fan of the Xbox achievement system, it was exciting to be able to get an opportunity to work with the feature. Of course for UAW we wanted to offer players more than just gamer points as a reward for their long hours and dedication to playing the game. So we expanded the Xbox achievement system by allowing players to unlock unique medals. What’s fun about these medals is that they are faction-specific and provide unique buffs that can be used during gameplay. In addition, we created a set of shared medals that players will be able to configure through UAW’s embedded “medal chest” system. So if you just started playing UAW, you can still join the battles prepared. Our goal with the medal system was to add additional value to the achievements players earn for all the hard work they put into the game.

Another exciting new feature we added to Universe at War is “Conquer the World.” In this mode players are presented with their own personal view of Earth. After they have selected their faction, players can proceed to conquer territories around the globe. When matching starts, players will be connected with other players of equal skill. Also, CTW is designed to work with interoperability, so opponents can be either PC or console players. Once a player has conquered the planet with a specific faction, they can either start over with an increased level of difficulty, or continue with all territories conquered. There are also a handful of achievements tied to this mode, so competition should be fierce.

360 players will be able to go toe-to-toe online with their PC counterparts in the final game.

In addition to conquer the world, players can match via “Ranked” games against others of equal skill. Similar to conquer the world, ranked games are set up to be interoperable. This mode is tied to UAW’s embedded leaderboard system, so players can check out their ranked standing at any time. Another feature about the Universe at War leaderboard system is that players can look up details about any player on the ladder. Not only can they check out their Universe at War achievements, but they can compare stats, challenge players, and even send private messages.

For standard custom match games we designed the interface and features to give players the ability to easily set up or find matches. Players can customize their games from a wide variety of maps and options to create a fun and unique experience. One of my favorite features is the ability to turn off “Hero Respawn.” With this set to “off” players really need to look after their heroes, because once they are destroyed, they don’t come back.

Lastly, console players will be able to view and save replays from all their online game sessions. These will be awesome to use for bragging rights, especially when it’s a PC player getting crushed by a superior console veteran.

-If Its Games

Apple Seeks To Extend Trademark Into Gaming Devices (TechWeb)

TechWeb - A trademark filing has sparked speculation about whether the company is prepping to make a big push into the lucrative market for videogames.

China targets Internet in crime sweep (AP)

AP - Seeking to ferret out online games considered overly violent or unhealthy, China has targeted illegal Web sites, computer markets and Internet cafes as part of a campaign to rein in juvenile crime.

Nintendo “Super Smash Bros” Japan sales top 1 million (Reuters)

Reuters - Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS) sold 1.08 million units of its “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” software in 11 days since its January 31 launch in Japan, reaching the 1 million mark faster than any other Wii game, a game magazine publisher said.

EA to ship Spore this September (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Electronic Arts (EA) and development studio Maxis announced Tuesday plans to ship the new game Spore this September. EA plans for simultaneous Mac and PC release. It’s also coming to Nintendo DS and mobile phones.

Music-Inspired Hannah Montana Video Games Planned For Spring

Hannah Montana, the Original Disney Channel Series that launched in 2006, has been viewed in more than 23 million homes across Europe. The second season of Hannah Montana launched on Disney Channels this past summer and aired on terrestrial/FTA channels in Italy, Germany, France and UK in Autumn/Winter 2007. Hannah Montana mania is gaining momentum across Europe, and Disney Interactive Studios will launch two new innovative music-based titles inspired by the popular series.

Wii Game review scores severely lagging behind Xbox 360 and PS3

Journalist Matt Matthews done a bit of digging on Game Rankings and found that reviews of Wii games are severely lagging behind the Xbox 360 and PS3. The average of all reviews for the Xbox 360 is about 70 percent, while for the PS3 it is over 73 percent. However, the Wii puts in a very poor average performance with 64 percent.

Ultimate Ladies bath room comes complete with a Wii

RotoRooter is handing out the ultimate female bathroom which comes complete with all kinds of gaming gadgets and goodies. The ultra pink bathroom featues a Vaio laptop, flatscreen TV, iPod, pedi kit and wait for it… a Nintendo Wii!

Nintendo file to sue 10 unidentified defendants for leaks

Nintendo has filed a vague lawsuit in King County Superior Court against 1-10 “John Does.” The court filing made earlier this month claims that the unidentified defendants “misappropriat[ed] trade secrets,” but does not say exactly what was leaked. However more information should come to light as Nintendo can apparently now subpoena the individuals and legally compel them to come forward, and get statements from other parties.