14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has recently revealed better than expected financial results for the quarter that ended on December 31, 2014 and both FIFA 15 and Madden NFL 15 were solid contributors to its performance, especially via their Ultimate Team modes.
One of the most overlooked elements of the sports sims that are very important to the community and to the developers is the soundtrack and the way the tracks featured are chosen in order to suit the tone of the title but also the tastes of its potential players.
Steve Schnur and Cybele Pettus are the leaders of the music team at Electronic Arts and they claim that 1,000 bands are heard and evaluated before a top forty is created and then featured in the biggest sports titles on the market.
Schnur is quoted by ESPN as saying that “What once was MTV and radio to an older generation is now FIFA and Madden.”
Pettus says that a successful soundtrack needs to deliver at least 50 percent tracks that the fan community can resonate with, some of which will become huge hits just after the games are available on store shelves.
FIFA and Madden might introduce their own streaming services
Steve Schnur says that in order to make sure that more of the community is satisfied with the songs included, both big sports series will get streaming service options.
The Electronic Arts executive adds, “Right now, we're tethered to a one-year experience. But we want the gamer to be able to hear what's cool in Week 7 of the NFL, not just Week 1.”
At the moment, the publisher has not offered any information on the way it plans to innovate with the releases of either FIFA or Madden NFL that are coming this year.
Streaming has become very popular for music during the past few years, but introducing such a service would require some massive licensing efforts from Electronic Arts.
Details on the two sports titles are expected to arrive around the E3 2015 event, which will take place in early June.
