ESPN, EA team for Virtual Playbook

  • By TomM_GScom, GameSpot
  • Posted Sep 5, 2008 12:59 pm PT

In 2005, Electronic Arts further shored up its hold on professional sports gaming by signing a 15-year exclusivity contract with the premier sports network, ESPN. One of the most notable outcomes of that deal has been extensive ESPN integration into EA's stalwart gridiron sim Madden NFL, notably by...

In 2005, Electronic Arts further shored up its hold on professional sports gaming by signing a 15-year exclusivity contract with the premier sports network, ESPN. One of the most notable outcomes of that deal has been extensive ESPN integration into EA's stalwart gridiron sim Madden NFL, notably by way of a streaming stats ticker highlighting the performance of real-world athletes.

Now, Madden NFL will be playing a more prominent role in ESPN's own broadcasts. The game maker today unveiled the EA Sports Virtual Playbook, which melds ESPN's studio with images from Madden NFL to create what EA calls "augmented reality." The technology lets real and virtual people move about ESPN's set, highlighting matchups and demonstrating various offensive and defensive hypotheticals.

The new technology will be rolled out this week as part of ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. The broadcast network also intends to integrate the new technology into its Monday Night Countdown and NFL Live programs, with SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, and ESPN2's morning sports program First Take all potential venues for the Virtual Playbook.

29 Comments

  • omnifas

    Posted Sep 10, 2008 12:06 am PT

    I agree with creed why waste a multi million dollar license on stat tickers and small segments on ESPN. I'd personally rather see ESPN Scoreboards/Layouts than EASports logos everywhere. VC used the license properly, it's only wasted in EA's hands.

  • ps2forever

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 3:13 pm PT

    At first when i heard about this news. I thought that the whole show would be revovling around, these sims. But over all it looks pretty damn cool.

  • necronaux

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 9:58 am PT

    I thought something was wrong with my TV. The players looked all funky. I quickly realized that it wasn't live action players, but computer sims. The whole show was one big ad for Madden. I REALLY hope this doesn't continue. I could handle seeing a play or two broken down / explained using this technology, but I'd refuse to watch a whole show done this way.

  • creed20056969

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 8:56 am PT

    This is cool,but how about putting ESPN in you game EA!!!!!! It shows more and more every year that you only bought it to keep 2k from using it. EA got embarassed from 2k5. 2k5 is still the greatest football game ever made hands down. All Madden has is graphics,period.

  • BlueDevilGamer

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:25 am PT

    This is going to be great!!! I love espn and ea and this is going to help people understand what the Countdown guys are talking about.

  • krimla

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 7:35 am PT

    WOW! Regardless if you hate EA or not this is a VERY cool idea! It is also important to note that this has NOT been done before as some are stating. The previous renders were just "in game" representations of real life plays. This is an advanced representation that allows showing plays by mixing reality and a virtual representation. The picture above shows it very well.

  • eagles_band

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 5:56 am PT

    This sounds pretty cool

  • justinjohns0n

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 9:04 pm PT

    looking forward to this. I like the FOX sports sunday myself but looking forward to seeing this on NFL live or something. This should improve graphical gameplay due to Madden being on National TV from now on. Good Stuff! Now implement ESPN into Madden presentation!!

  • datnukkad

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 8:37 pm PT

    To me nothing was better than 2k sports football. Nothing else was realer

  • jazztrumpet5

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 8:17 pm PT

    Yeah, ESPN uses Madden, but I haven't seen once where Madden uses ESPN. It's a drag that the presentation in the Madden games sucks so bad when they could do so much more with the ESPN license. Hopefully they change that in the future, but it's been a few years and counting...

  • neonfrax2

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 6:13 pm PT

    Ummm... NFL Sunday on FOX has been using Madden renders to demonstrate game previews for the last three years.

  • valdarez

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 3:33 pm PT

    Now, if only Madden had better game play. lol

  • Sacred-Snow

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 9:49 am PT

    It's cool but eh

  • NoseWeed619

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 8:21 am PT

    That sounds pretty revolutionary. Really neat. Never thought that anything like this would be happening, but this is just cool.

  • darknferno12

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 8:03 pm PT

    I know the way ESPN will use Madden they will make it look like a great sim (they did something like this before iirc), breaking down plays so I'm looking forward to it I mean at least someone is doing something with the 15 year ESPN exclusivity contract though I thought it would've been Madden not ESPN

  • MURDA_B

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 7:58 pm PT

    OOOWWW WONDER WHY MADDEN 09 CAME OUT THE WAY IT DID.BUT GOOD IDEA THOUGH

  • gamerTag-shank

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 4:53 pm PT

    They still have properly integrated the ESPN license into the Madden game. NFL 2k5 still does it better, how sad. But this is what happens without competition, thanks NFL.

  • jlgil8

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 4:45 pm PT

    What they should be doing is focusing on improving the games, "ESPECIALLY" since they got "SOLO" rights to the NFL, not parading around on ESPN with their nonsense! I can't believe most of you applaud EA for this after seeing what crap they put out each year for NFL games...UNBELIEVABLE!!!

  • datniccah187

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 3:31 pm PT

    EA is good for Madden i haven't really been impressed with many of their other products.

  • rsoxguy12

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:37 pm PT

    i watch those shows all the time and i love madden. im excited to see it.

  • XoXGamer4lyfXoX

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:27 pm PT

    seems pretty awesome

  • maverick_76

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:23 pm PT

    I can't wait to see how this works out, I have to admit that when I am home I love watching the pre-game shows.

  • kz1den

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:16 pm PT

    Sad that the network is taking better advantage of the exclusivity deal than the game itself.

  • theprocess420

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:09 pm PT

    Creepy...but cool

  • BigCat2K20

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 1:39 pm PT

    Excellent!

  • prioritymail

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 1:37 pm PT

    Sounds pretty cool

  • remmbermytitans

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 1:20 pm PT

    Cool. I'll be watching Sunday NFL Countdown anyway, so this'll be a nice bonus.

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