EA Sports Message Board older than one year ago

I thought I’d have a kickaround on the Fifa 13 demo so that I could actually sprinkle the pepper of opinion upon the scant sliver of information in this post. Sadly, it doesn’t work for me and I don’t know why and don’t have time to correct the issue. The Fifa 13 demo is now on Origin. It probably has new animations for celebrating goals, maybe even a Usain Bolt type thing to try and bring all of sport together, unless there’s a license to pay for that particular pose. Now I’ve made myself a little glum by imagining/realising that it’s possible to copyright a pose.

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#ncaafootball13 NCAA Football 13's "Uniform Store," meant to deliver the latest variants on the college football getups you see on the TV, finally has some threads to offer. Twenty-three uniforms are now available through the feature—free—although it is not yet accessible through the PlayStation 3. More »

Attention PlayStation Nation: we’re back with the biggest gaming tournament of the year – the $1 Million EA Sports Challenge Series powered by Virgin Gaming! Last year, we blew the doors off of the sports gaming scene and now we’re giving you another chance to take home huge cash prizes for playing FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13 and NHL 13.

To get a taste of what last year’s experience was like, check out this video recap from the 2012 tournament finals in New York. Last year in NYC, we made legends out of Adam Winster (FIFA 12 Challenge Champion), Tyler Glen (Madden NFL 12 Challenge Champion) and John Grasso (NHL 12 Challenge Champion). These gamers took home life-changing prizes and will be defending their titles in 2013. Bring your best game and you could be crowned this year’s champ.

So How Does it Work?

This year’s tournament structure has been simplified, so even if you’ve never played in a video game tournament before it won’t take you long to get into the action. In fact, it only takes six wins to secure your spot at the live tournament finals taking place in Las Vegas!

1. Online Qualifiers (October 9Tth 2012 – January 1st 2013)
First, with your purchase of FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13 and/or NHL 13 at GameStop, you will receive free entry into the tournament. Next, sign up for an account at VirginGaming.com. Once you have an account and log in, you’ll find a place to put in your code for the game specific challenge that you are interested in. Then you find a match on VirginGaming.com and challenge your opponent in the EA Sports Arena on your PS3. These qualifiers run 24/7 and you only have to win four matches in a row to secure your spot in the semi-finals. But hurry—there are a limited number of seats to be won in the semis.

2. Online Semi-Finals (January 7th and 8th, 2013)
The first 1,024 players to qualify (512 for NHL 13) will compete in scheduled, bracketed tournament play for a spot in the finals. It only takes TWO wins at this stage to move on.

3. Live Finals in Las Vegas (February 9th, 2013)
The top 256 players from the semi-finals (128 for NHL 13) will meet in Las Vegas to compete for cash and enjoy a day of gaming, music and entertainment in this legendary party town.

What You Can Win

Make it to the live tournament finals and you’ll compete for cash prizes up to $140,000. Everyone at the finals will walk away a winner, with a guaranteed minimum cash prize of $500. Here’s a complete rundown of what’s up for grabs:

$400,000 FIFA 13 CHALLENGE $400,000 MADDEN NFL 13 CHALLENGE $200,000 NHL® 13 CHALLENGE GRAND PRIZE $140,000 GRAND PRIZE $140,000 GRAND PRIZE $70,000 2ND PLACE $40,000 2ND PLACE $40,000 2ND PLACE $20,000 3RD-4TH $8,000 3RD-4TH $8,000 3RD-4TH $5,000 5TH-8TH $3,300 5TH-8TH $3,300 5TH-8TH $2,000 9TH-16TH $1,750 9TH-16TH $1,750 9TH-16TH $1,700 17TH-32ND $1,250 17TH-32ND $1,250 17TH-32ND $1,250 33RD-64TH $1,000 33RD-64TH $1,000 33RD-64TH $750 65TH-128TH $750 65TH-128TH $750 65TH-128TH $500 129TH-256TH $500 129TH-256TH $500 129TH-256TH $50 257TH-512TH $50 257TH-512TH $50

If you want to learn more, head over to ChallengeSeries.com for full rules and details, plus the latest tournament news, special strategy content to help you improve your game and more.

Ready for a piece of the big prize pool? Then grab your controller, fire up your PS3, and compete to join us in Vegas for the sports gaming party of the year.

#stickjockey The rumor went around shortly after everyone got back from E3. I took a phone call from a person within the industry who knew I'd been down to EA Sports' Tiburon studio to see NBA Live. They asked if I thought it was going to be a digital-only release. More »

#nhl13 In what appears to be a first, two women's hockey stars will appear as playable athletes in a sports video game simulating a professional men's league. NHL 13 will feature Hayley Wickenheiser (above, left), of the Canadian women's national team, and Angela Ruggiero (above, right) of the United States national team, alongside Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and other all-time greats in the game's "Be A Legend" mode. More »

#stickjockey In cataloging the greatest thrills and moments I've had as a sports video gamer, all but one one or two have come in a career mode of some type. In some cases, it came because I strictly avoided the game's exhibition features. For example, in 2011, just barely qualifiying to play The Masters meant something to me precisely because I had refused, to that point, to play the course from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12's play-now menu. More »

#yodawg Reader Jarren T. snapped this picture of the big news from Week 3 in his playthrough of Madden NFL 13, whose early-access weekend ends tomorrow. Not only is Madden acknowledging and evidently implementing the so-called curse that befalls its cover stars, it's even referring to itself in the third person. So this edition marks the point where Madden was loaded with the Freddie Mitchell personality module and accidentally became self-aware. More »

#fifa13 Lionel Messi, who once starred on the cover of two editions of Pro Evolution Soccer, will star on the cover of FIFA 13 in all regions when the game releases Sept. 25. He'll be joined by other popular players local to other regions getting a separate cover. More »

Find out if 13 is a lucky number for EA's storied football franchise.

Madden designer Josh Looman gives you the ins and outs of Madden NFL 13's new mode that wraps up franchise, create a player and so much more.

Madden designer Josh Looman takes on IGN's Greg Miller while schooling you on Madden NFL 13's new tweaks.

Some leaked footage of NBA Live 13, claimed to be from a pre-alpha build, has appeared just as we started to doubt the sports game's existence. Aside from some wooden commentating, the above video from Operation Sports shows off 10 minutes of gameplay between the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kotaku followed up with EA, who did indeed confirm this as NBA Live 13 footage - albeit early footage. A rep said the video "appears to be captured from a pre-alpha build months ago and is not an official EA Sports release. It does not represent a final build or feature set for NBA Live."

#fifa13 It's inevitable that women will appear as playable athletes in a football title, the executive producer of the FIFA video game series told a petition organizer. But it's far too late for that to happen in FIFA 13, and he couldn't commit to any future year in which it might for his series. More »

#watchthis After more than two months of nearly total radio silence from EA Sports and the NBA Live team, skeptical sports gamers figured the series' return was either in trouble, delayed, or even secretly canceled. This video spotted by Operation Sports, which shows 11 minutes of the game from boot-up to the first quarter horn, suggests otherwise. It's the Miami Heat versus Oklahoma City, a rematch of this year's NBA Finals. More »

#madden They are the heroes of our childhoods. The glory of their times. Their video game comes out later this month. For the entirety of the current console generation, just one mega-publisher has solely controlled the exclusive right to immortalize their triumphs. It's a deal that has reaped gobs of cash, and the latest edition of that money grab hits shelves later this month. More »

#nostalgia Not only that, Team USA Basketball featured all of the Dream Team's 12 players, including Scottie Pippen, who won't be in NBA 2K13 because he and 2K Sports couldn't reach an agreement on his appearance. More »

#madden Editor's Note: In my sports column Sunday, I noted a rather significant change to the control system in NBA 2K13 and pondered why sports video games remake their controls more often than other genres, including series that are now releasing annually. Zack Hiwiller, himself a former designer of sports video games, sheds a good deal of light on this issue in the following response.—Owen Good More »

#easports Few noticed back in April, if it was even announced stateside, that EA Sports' MVP Baseball series was returning as an online game in South Korea. It's an interesting re-emergence of a brand many sports gamers remember fondly, but it offers little hope of the game actually returning in North America. More »

#burningquestions Sometimes it feels like gaming has two camps: Those who play sports games, and those who don't. It's not unlike the jocks and nerds in high school, really. Could non-sports gamers find something to love in sports games? Should Mass Effect players give Madden a shot? How do sports tell stories, and how are story-based games like sports? And what would a Friday Night Lights video game look like? More »

#ssx A series of not-so-subtle Tweets and screenshots on Thursday hinted that SSX, which launched in February, will be getting true head-to-head online multiplayer races in the next title update. This video, released yesterday by EA Sports, practically confirms it. More »

#rumor A listing in the monthly Xbox Live Rewards roundup hints that NBA Live 13 will see a digital release when it arrives, supposedly in October. More »

#nbalive Yesterday, Electronic Arts mentioned just three console and/or PC releases coming up between October and the end of the year, and NBA Live 13 was not on the list. Given the series' troubled history, an E3 reveal widely judged to be a flop, and near silence from EA Sports since then, sports gamers took this as a sign the franchise was in some kind of trouble. More »

#filthflarnfilth One of the funnier controversies coming out of E3 was how FIFA 13 intended to handle voice recognition in its new suite of Kinect-enabled features. A promotional video left a strong impression that yelling "#$@%!" or "$&%@!" or "wanker!" at the virtual official would result in a yellow card. That was the impression that the game's general manager had at the time, too. More »

#madden Electronic Arts will set up a $27 million fund to settle a class action lawsuit alleging its Madden NFL series was a price-gouging illegal monopoly. To no one's surprise, the biggest payment out of that will be to lawyers. More »

Pending court approval, anyone who bought a copy of Madden NFL on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or Wii will be entitled to as much as a $1.95 refund, under the settlement terms of class action lawsuit that alleged EA Sports' exclusive licenses on three American football titles constituted an illegal monopoly. EA Sports has agreed to a limitation on seeking a new exclusive license for its NCAA Football series, but its Madden deal with the National Football League remains intact. More »

#easportsufc At E3, EA Sports' top man—himself a mixed martial arts enthusiast who trains in the sport—was mum on the label's plans for how its surprise acquisition of the UFC license would fit into its publishing calendar—or which of its studios would even develop it. "The ink is still wet," on the deal, as Andrew Wilson (pictured at left) put it. More »

#ncaafootball13 Roster editing is done in every simulation sports community but nowhere is it more important than in NCAA Football 13, which has to skirt amateurism requirements (and legal action) by auto-generating random names for its players. More »

#ssx EA Sports dropped this video of SSX late Friday, boasting that they've got something new in store for fans this summer, and that only those with sharp eyes would be able to even guess what it was. Well, in the first 20 seconds, the camera lingers on board art that says "Merqury City," referencing a level from the original game. So that wasn't too hard. More »

#ncaafootball13 Depicting college head coaches in NCAA Football is as much of a cat-and-mouse game of subtlety and implication as it is representing "real" players. That's not to say Penn State's sideline boss hasn't undergone some significant changes between NCAA Football 12 and NCAA Football 13. More »

#fifa13 Last year, when Manchester City elected to reissue the red-and-black striped design it last wore in 1967, it revealed the new shirts through FIFA 12. Arsenal's new purple-and-black alternate kit likewise debuted today with some assistance from the EA Sports football title. More »