14 DAY TRIAL // The EA Sports division at publisher Electronic Arts and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have announced that they are working together to offer two fellowships for post-graduate students that are interested in sports.
They will be fully employed for 16 weeks at the EA Tiburon studio, the creator of the two American football simulation series, NCAA Football and Madden NFL.
The team working on the games will show the two lucky candidates how they are created and will see whether they have what it takes in order to join the development process.
Cam Weber, who is the general manager for football video games at EA Sports, has stated, “The potential roles will vary based on the types of candidates that apply. We are interested in candidates from engineering through to art, audio, and game design.”
He added, “We are in a growth phase as we take on a major transformation in our industry. Part of our talent growth strategy is to target university grads. We have seen former college football players flourish in our team here at Tiburon, and we are excited about having more of them join our team to help us build the world’s most authentic and immersive football games.”
It's not yet perfectly clear how the two candidates will be chosen, but Weber says that both the academic and the sporting record will be taken into account.
Weber himself has arrived in the video game development industry after playing NCAA football as a quarterback for the Simon Frazer University.
There are also a number of former Division 1 players working at EA Tiburon.
Madden NFL is one of the most important franchises in the Electronic Arts portfolio and launching a successful version every year requires bringing in new development talent.
The 2012 version is now out on all major gaming consoles.