EA Sports Message Board older than one year ago

#stickjockey Wednesday was supposed to be a day of no news in Major League Baseball. There are no league games in January, of course; pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 29 days. And exit polling had long foreseen the shutout ballot, for the first time since 1996, that the Baseball Writers Association of America would submit in voting on nominees to the Hall of Fame. More »

#thefuture Seven months ago at E3, I sat down with EA Sports' boss, Andrew Wilson, for an annual chat that always features a lot of big-picture spitballing because of where and when it takes place. I forget what question brought this up, but I'm now looking at my notebook from that day and I see the words "Internet-enabled fridge" written and underlined twice. More »

#tigerwoodspgatour All four major tournaments of men's golf—The Masters Tournament, The United States Open Championship, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship—will appear in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, a detail practically lost among other features announced for the game, such as nighttime golf and the debut of the LPGA Tour. More »

#ea Tattoo artist Stephen Allen is responsible for at least some of the artwork adorning the arms of former NFL running back Ricky Williams. That same tattoo has appeared on the cover of a video game, leading Allen to sue both Williams and the publisher. More »

#ncaafootball14 BCS National Championship Game curbstompee Notre Dame finished in first place, overall, in the first round of NCAA Football's anything-goes cover voting contest currently running on Facebook. More »

#ncaafootball14 So, we know a little more about how NCAA Football 14 is handling its social media vote-off to determine the game's cover subject this summer. Apparently there were some other polls on the game's Facebook page factoring into a school's overall vote popularity. More »

#ruhroh Ostensibly put up to a series of fan-voted Facebook polls, NCAA Football 14's cover also will be influenced by other, as yet unexplained, social media forces. A field of all 126 Division I-A Football Bowl Subdivision teams was supposed to have been thinned to 32 candidates after Monday, but we don't yet know who the finalists are. With Penn State currently in first place among fan voting on Facebook—and Kentucky, of all football powers, a close second—I think it's clear why this popularity contest has some fudge factors working in the background. More »

#nbadelete NBA Live 10 is one of six EA Sports titles that will lose online support on Jan. 11., according to a notice from Electronic Arts. While retiring online features for sports titles more than a year old is not uncommon for any sports publisher, killing multiplayer support for NBA Live 10, which released in 2009, is noteworthy as it symbolically means the end of any professional basketball simulation offered by EA Sports. More »

#madden If you installed Madden NFL Social when it released on Nov. 1 and haven't played it much since, it might be a good time to check back in. The game's latest title update dropped 100,000 of the game's virtual "coins" on anyone who had a copy of the game installed before this week. More »

#ncaafootball14 In 2010, Madden NFL 11 put its cover up to a popularity contest, giving fans three candidates for the honor of regressing to the mean in the coming season. Begun, the cover vote craze had. Two years later, the escalation in cover contests has reached five-blade razor proportions. Madden went from 32 to 64 nominees this past year. To that, its American football sibling NCAA Football sibling says, "*crag* everything, we're going to 126 candidates." More »

#stickjockey The Video Game Awards celebrated 10 years of giving out hardware on Friday. Bet you didn't know, or at least you forgot, who was the first winner of its Game of the Year award. More »

Starting today, I’m happy to report that EA Sports is bundling four of its hit PS3 sports titles with tons of bonus downloadable content on PSN! If you’ve been meaning to pick up Madden NFL 13, NCAA Football 13, FIFA Soccer 13, or Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13, this is the perfect opportunity — and yes, this deal is only on PSN. You’ll be able to download the full game and extra content bundle all month long.

To download any of these deals, turn on your PS3 and head to PlayStation Store after today’s update goes live, then click on “Games” on the left-hand navigation. Click on the “Sales and Specials” section on the left and you’ll see the four different EA Sports bundles as you scroll to your right. Click on any bundle and then click “Purchase” to download the complete game and bonus content.

Read on for a quick look at this year’s EA Sports lineup and exactly what you’ll get in the PSN bundle promotion. If you have any questions or comments regarding these bundles, please leave them in the comments!

Madden NFL 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — Madden NFL 13, Madden Ultimate Team content ($20 value)

Madden NFL 13 revolutionizes the way sports video game career modes are played with Connected Careers, a new and fully connected universe defined by deep gameplay, unique storylines and social features. Powered by the all-new Infinity Engine, authentic player impacts and momentum transfer ensure that no two plays ever look or feel the same. Also included is Madden NFL 13 Ultimate Team, a free-to-play game mode that integrates Madden NFL Football, fantasy football, and player trading cards. You’ll earn, buy, auction, and trade players to build an ultimate team of NFL legends past and present, then compete in single-player challenges or battle online head-to-head.

Our PSN bundle gives you $20 of Draft Duels Packs for use in Madden NFL’s new competitive drafting experience. In Draft Duels, you’ll go head-to-head picking players against an opponent, then battle on the gridiron to win exclusive rewards.

NCAA Football 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — NCAA Football 13, Heisman Bundle ($20 value)

Lead your team to glory with NCAA Football 13, the latest edition of EA Sports’ popular college football franchise. With one of 10 former Heisman winners on your roster, you’ll attempt to utilize his legendary skill set to capture the Heisman Trophy—this time for your school. The all-new passing game sees players tracking and fighting for the ball, while ESPN Studio Updates bring the game to life in a more dynamic, immersive way.

With our PSN Heisman Bundle, you’ll receive six Heisman Trophy Winning Legends, plus all the tools you need to win in the new Heisman Challenge: Tim Brown, Archie Griffin, Jim Plunkett, Tim Tebow, Mark Ingram and Matt Leinart.

FIFA Soccer 13 Bonus Edition

$49.99 — FIFA Soccer 13, 2200 FIFA Points for FIFA Ultimate Team ($20 value)

FIFA Soccer 13 delivers the largest and deepest feature set in the history of the franchise, delivering more player freedom and heightened emotional intensity. Other standout additions include refined fundamentals, improved attacking intelligence, tactical free kicks, and more expressive player impacts, plus more than 500 officially licensed clubs and more than 15,000 players.

With FIFA Ultimate Team you’re a few simple steps away from building, managing and playing with your top squad. You can play for free or purchase FUT packs using Coins or EA Sports FIFA Points. You’ll choose from more than 8,000 players, then pick your style of play, preferred formation, kits, and much more. 2200 FIFA points will help you unveil some of the best FUT items and give you an opportunity to get the world’s star players on your team.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 Bonus Edition

$59.99 — Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13, Five Course Pack ($25 value)

The world’s number-one selling golf game is back and ready for another season of PGA TOUR golf. Players will once again be able to experience the authentic golf swing created by the PlayStation Move, allowing golfers to emulate their swing style. You’ll experience revamped swing control, tackle Tiger Woods’ legacy and compete against the world’s best players at The Masters.

The 5 Course Pack includes the following gorgeous, bonus downloadable courses: Spyglass Hill Golf Course, TPC San Antonio, Liberty National, Banff Springs and Greek Isles (a Fantasy course).

#tigerwoodspgatour14 Mea culpa: When Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 revealed its cover stars yesterday—Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods—I missed the biggest news in the cover art: Its basic course roster has gone up to 20. More »

#tigerwoodspgatour14 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 revealed its cover today, pairing Woods with a younger Arnold Palmer, as he appeared during his heyday of the early 1960s. Palmer returns to the game as a playable character, too, having last appeared in the game in 2006. More »

#ncaafootball13 "Roster Share," a service in which NCAA Football 13 players trade edited rosters over EA Sports servers, has been down for a few days on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. This has given rise to conspiracy rumors that EA has spiked the feature, especially as it's tied to a use-of-likeness lawsuit brought by former college players. More »

#nbalive On Sept. 27, EA Sports scrapped NBA Live 13, the second straight cancellation in the series' troubled history. Quarterly earnings calls are coming soon and many will be listening intently for anything Electronic Arts has to say about an expensive license, coming to the end of a console generation, that hasn't produced a retail copy since 2009. More »

#nhl13 The National Hockey League is frozen in a labor impasse that so far has canceled opening night festivities scheduled for today, and shows no sign of ending any time soon. So, in steps EA Sports, using NHL 13, to provide a simulation and highlights for how the season would play out. Here are highlights from the first week of canceled games. And to narrate them, here is ESPN's hockey token Steve Levy—who has no presence in the video game, that I know of, anyway. More »

#nhl13 Last week brought us the "Hercules Check," evidently a glitch in which a skater could park his man six rows deep in the stands if he hip-checked him by the door during a line change. EA Sports, in an oh-fish-ee-al video, has now stepped forward to say, "Yeah, we meant to do that." More »

#wii A week ago, Chris Scullion of Nintendo Gamer and Official Nintendo Magazine ripped FIFA 13's Wii version chin-to-groin, for being basically indistinct from FIFA 12 other than roster and uniform updates. Everyone knows the Wii is a dead console walking, but that does not excuse a major publisher palming off last year's release like it's something new this year. More »

#stickjockey It's at least a five-day drive from Burnaby, British Columbia to Maitland, Fla.—if you're using Google Maps, that is. I have no idea what route you'll get from Apple Maps, last week's most conspicuous failure in the world of consumer software. More »

NBA Live 13 may be lost, but EA's got one win on its hands at least, as FIFA 13 has sold at record numbers already. The popular soccer sim has sold through 353,000 copies on Xbox 360 and the PS3 in just one day, according to EA, giving those sales an increase of 42 percent over last year's iteration. The iOS version has also done well, with the best launch day sales of the game on that platform in history.

FIFA 12 sold 3.2 million copies in its first week last year, and went on to sell over 10 million total. Presumably, FIFA 13 is on track to do even better than that this year. It arrived in North America this past Tuesday, and will release on Friday around the rest of the world.

#wii The Wii may have been the worst console for sports video games ever—not "worst major," not "worst of its generation," flat out the worst console for sports video games. I know it had Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and that version often outperformed the high-definition consoles in reviewer scores. But the prototypical Wii sports video games were either cartoony arcade spinoffs or cartoony afterthought ports of simulation franchises or exergaming titles, nearly all of it helping cultivate the kid's-stuff image that console's fans so resented. More »

#fifa13 Mexicans cannot speak commands in their native tongue to their team in FIFA 13—but French-speaking Canadians can—in the version of the game now being sold to the three nations of North America. More »

#madden One of my favorite moments of last night's football debacle was this tweet by the folks at EA: More »

#ea Valve is far from the only video game company hiring total outsiders to come in and help make them money. Electronic Arts has done something similar, with Forbes reporting they've hired Danish data analyst Jonas Lygaard, despite the fact he has absolutely zero experience in the games industry. More »

#stickjockey The question was put forth this past week, in a podcast where I was a panelist: Are sports video games in a golden age? More »

#fifa13 You'll get Roberto Soldado's somersault, Mario Balotelli's flex appeal, and tons more goal celebrations as part of the new package of animations in FIFA 13, which unlocked 30 minutes ago for holders of the EA Sports Season Ticket early weekend program (on Xbox 360 and PS3). More »

#fineart Even if you've never played a sports game in your life, EA's intro catchphrase has become one of the most ubiquitous in all of gaming. So for Fine Art tody, we're going to take a break from castles and giant robots to look at the people who are now in charge of the slogan (or at least the part where it comes up). More »

NBA Live 13 has officially been delayed, and won't launch at the beginning of October as expected. EA hasn't given a new release date for the game yet. Competitor NBA 2K13 is still set to drop on October 2, and the NBA season is scheduled for a start on October 30 of this year.

EA decided to cancel its basketball series back in 2010. NBA Live 13 was supposed to be its triumphant return, but EA hasn't shown much of it.

The same announcement of the game's delay contained the trailer above, so it certainly seems to be on its way to reality. We'll stay tuned for any more information on a possible release.

#breaking NBA Live 13 is effectively delayed indefinitely. While EA Sports may say the game isn't, technically, delayed because it was never given a release date, the publisher today acknowledged many had expected it to release Oct. 2 alongside competitor NBA 2K13, and said it's giving the NBA Live development team more time to shore up a game that left E3 roundly panned and had gone AWOL in the three months since. More »