NASCAR, EA Miss Promo Opportunity
Just a quick note about Electronic Arts' NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, the racing game that just hit retail stores.
If you haven't played one of these racing games, it's really worth your while to take a few minutes and load one up. It's truly amazing to get behind the wheel of one of these souped-up cars. (Check out some of the visual included.)
The problem I have, though, is that EA totally dropped the ball when it comes to promoting the NASCAR drivers. This is one of the most popular spectator sports in the United States. Millions flocks to races. And try – just try – to tell someone that you think Jeff Gordon is the future of racing, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is overrated. If you don't think you'll end up in a fist-fight over that one, then you've missed the point of racing.
It's worth mentioning because while Ray Lewis commercials for Madden 2005 are everywhere, I haven't seen many driver commercials for NASCAR 2005 (which is odd since the actual drivers are starting their chase for the cup). In fact, there are no drivers mentioned in the promotional materials, and a quck look around the Web didn't pull up any prominent names involved either.
It's easy to overlook racing in the Sports Center age. There are no dunks. No big hits (except for crashes). No monster home runs. But, the fact remains, tens of thousands flock to the big tracks to see their favorite drivers – and millions more tune in on television and radio.
Sep 2, 2004 at 01:17 PM by Brad King in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0)
NCAA Football 2005 Hits Stores -- and Broadband
Finally a college football game that takes into account the most important component of any match-up (outside of the cheerleaders): home field advantage.
Electronic Arts' NCAA Football 2005 hit the shelves on Wednesday and with it comes the Match-Up Stick, a meter that measures how the crowd noise and environment is affecting the game.
Anyone who has ever watched The Ohio State Buckeyes (okay, really, any team – but I'm from Ohio) knows that The Horseshoe is more than just a stadium – it's intimidation number one when 101,568 rabid fans are packed into the joint on a Saturday afternoon (the average attendance is over 104,000 per game).
Oh yeah, this also marks the first game EA developed for Microsoft's Xbox Live online service (it's also available for the PS2 online).
Jul 15, 2004 at 05:26 AM by Brad King in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0)
EA Delves into Fantasy Football
It's not all women and cards in the realm of online gaming, though, and I don't want to give that impression, particularly since Electronic Arts just announced its EA Sports Fantasy Football.
The service – which joins a host of others offered by Yahoo, ESPN, and CBSSportsline.com – lets people create their own fantasy leagues. The network's computations will be powered by Stats Inc., one of the more respected sports statistics companies.
Starting on July 21, players can launch a league for $99.99 and include up to 32 teams. Like other services, players can watch their stats in real time. If people don't have any friends interested in joining a specific league, they can pay $9.99 and join a 12 team public league run by EA Sports.
Jun 17, 2004 at 07:31 PM by Brad King in Sports | Permalink | Comments (0)
