EA And ESPN Team Up, Despite Sega Deal

Thanks to GameSpot for their story announcing that Electronic Arts' Madden franchise will sponsor a pre-game show on TV network ESPN, in which the hosts "...will use footage of EA Sports' Madden NFL 2004 game... as a visual aid in helping to explain and illustrate NFL strategy and matchups." However, as the article points out, "EA Sports' sponsorship of an ESPN show calls into question Sega's current exclusive multiyear licensing deal with the sports network, announced last year" - and amusingly, this Yahoo article points out "ESPN.com's new games Web site, ESPN Gamer, gave 'Madden' a higher review than 'ESPN NFL Football'."

Comments

Well Duh

[BigDork1001]

"ESPN.com's new games Web site, ESPN Gamer, gave 'Madden' a higher review than 'ESPN NFL Football'."

Maybe because Madden is a better game? Just because it's ESPN Football doesn't mean that ESPN can't be impartial and not give another game a higher rating.

First they fight...

[ihatesco]

then they end up in bed.

Electronic Arts was sued by ESPN because EA tried to create a fictional "EA Sports Network" to brand their videogames... they already did it with the EANN (electronic arts news network) spoofing CNN in the Desert Strike/Jungle Strike series for the Sega Genesis but in the case of EANN they came over clean.

Can't find historical pages about this lawsuit, but there comes some quotes from google and google groups :)

google post (need to get to the part where it quotes EASN and ESPN).
ESPN versus CSPN (need to get to page 3)

Conflict? Not Too Surprised

[the_riaa]

ABC owns ESPN. ABC also employs John Madden for it's Monday Night Football broadcast, Madden being the namesake of the video game juggernaut. For years, before the Sega/ESPN deal, and hell, before ABC hired Madden, during games occasionally EA Madden footage was shown in games to show replays, strategies, etc.

Before Sega's partnership, the ESPN name was branded on other titles - but none of those were featured in ESPN broadcasts. If I were Sega, I wouldn't fret too much about this deal. EA's ponying up the money to slap their logo all around the pre-game show, and I'm sure ESPN would've gladly taken Sega's money if they would've offered as much/more. Capitalism? Sure. But do you still see tons of those Warren Sapp/Tracey Morgan commercials for ESPN NFL Football during ESPN broadcasts? I know I sure see a lot of them - almost as many as for their show Playmakers.

Oh, and Sega's offerings have been better in my eyes than Madden the past few years, but you have to give EA credit for their stranglehold on the market.

Something to note.

[illuminata]

On ESPNews, for the Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia game, ESPN NFL Football was used to predict what might happen, and not Madden NFL 2004.

Visual Concepts loses again

[Tom Courtenay]

Sega hasn't done anything right with VC's games since the DC.

• They don't market the games. There's very little advertising for some incredible products.
• They don't appear to be targetting EA's customers. Why not? Let them know that the alternatives to NBA Live & Madden are often *superior*!
• They're not pushing the online capabilities at all!

EA's games can't go online with X-box Live. Sega's have been able to since last year, so why don't we hear more about it? I'd be surprised to see the 2Kx series last much longer.

Since the series' inception, I've only purchased VC's football games. But they don't seem to be trying for my dollar anymore; I'm not just talking about advertising either. The new football game plays exactly like last year's, but this time your receivers actually hold on to the rock. That's not innovating or refining, that's fixing.

I hate to say it, but this was the first time in 5 years I've bought a Madden game. Even though I can't go online with it, it's still better than VC's offering.