14 DAY TRIAL // Sports games are quite popular these days, with high grossing franchises from labels such as EA Sports making a huge amount of money for both the developer and publisher but also for the company manufacturing the console that the titles arrive on.
That is why this genre is very important for any hardware manufacturer. When asked if Microsoft started making sports games for its Xbox 360 platform, the company's corporate vice president for long-term strategy in the Xbox 360 group, Shane Kim, revealed that Microsoft wouldn't start making games, but rather start creating unique experiences with the help of Xbox Live.
“We're really pleased to have Take Two and EA doing well on our platform with their sports games. So sports as a gaming genre is obviously very important,” revealed Kim. “The way I think about sports is in a broader context. Sports is something that hundreds of millions of people are super-passionate about. That's where I think the opportunity is for us to do really interesting things with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. While you can pick a number from a hat – there are six or seven million people who play Madden, there are a 100 million people who watch the NFL during the season. That's a very interesting market. So we can create an experience on our platform for that a football enthusiast or a basketball enthusiast or a baseball enthusiast.”
Kim added that the recent partnership with Sky television channel, in order to transmit Premier League soccer matches and have Xbox Live users watch them simultaneously right from the comfort of each of their homes would be the future. “That's not a soccer game. But that's Premier League live matches being broadcast on Xbox Live surrounded by our social entertainment experience. This is a much better video gaming experience to me than just watching the game.”
So, it seems that Microsoft has a different strategy when trying to appeal to gamers who also fancy sports. Do you think that standing with the avatars of your friends while watching a sports game will be better than getting together in real life? Or getting together and playing FIFA or Madden? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.