14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts launched a new partnership with ESPN designed to further expose the public to how detailed Madden NFL 2009 is while allowing the sports network to use the game engine to create an elaborate presentation of the American football matches that is transmits.
Electronic Arts and ESPN have an exclusivity contract that dates back to 2005 and runs for other 12 years, but until now the actual cooperation between the two sides has been limited. One of the most successful initiatives has been to incorporate an ESPN news ticker, detailing live events and performances of real world athletes in the game.
The new deal will have much more visible results. Electronic Arts has created something called the EA Sports Virtual Playbook, which attempts to intertwine the ESPN studio with images taken from the Madden NFL game engine to create what the company calls “augmented reality”. The idea is that real presenters that are in the studio will be able to move through the images taken from the game, while showing different plays, highlighting matchups and exploring various offensive and defensive situations that could occur in the real game. The new technique allows the people at ESPN to also create virtual characters that can be integrated in the broadcast or in the simulation.
ESPN's programs Monday Night Countdown and all its NFL Live programs will benefit from the expanded reality offered by EA Sports Virtual Playbook with plans already drawn up for SportsCenter, ESPNEWS and First Take on ESPN 2 to also integrate the new technology offered by Electronic Arts.
With Madden NFL figuring in every important televised show which focuses on the game, the publisher is sure to see demand for its game soar, even if there are some technical issues plaguing what is otherwise a good simulation of the NFL.