EA And ESPN Team Up, Despite Sega Deal

Thanks to GameSpot for their story announcing that Electronic Arts' Madden franchise will sponsor a pre-game show on TV network ESPN, in which the hosts "...will use footage of EA Sports' Madden NFL 2004 game... as a visual aid in helping to explain and illustrate NFL strategy and matchups." However, as the article points out, "EA Sports' sponsorship of an ESPN show calls into question Sega's current exclusive multiyear licensing deal with the sports network, announced last year" - and amusingly, this Yahoo article points out "ESPN.com's new games Web site, ESPN Gamer, gave 'Madden' a higher review than 'ESPN NFL Football'."

Well Duh

[BigDork1001]

"ESPN.com's new games Web site, ESPN Gamer, gave 'Madden' a higher review than 'ESPN NFL Football'."

Maybe because Madden is a better game? Just because it's ESPN Football doesn't mean that ESPN can't be impartial and not give another game a higher rating.

Re:Well Duh

[simoniker]

I think it's a little ironic that ESPN end up rating their own-branded product lower than a competitor's, yes. But I also think it's the justified and correct thing to do, since ESPN, as journalists, should be editorially independent, after all. As far as drawing any troll-tastic links to editorial bias at Slashdot Games, fortunately, we don't produce many videogames, so I think we're fairly safe.

Re:Well Duh

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

You're an editor and you don't know what irony means. I suppose you'd call that "ironic", wouldn't you?

Try to think a bit more high-level. ESPN did the right thing and dealt honestly with a product that was theirs in comparing it to another. Can Slashdot editors say the same in regard to business practices by IBM or in suggesting quality merchandise from Thinkgeek? The fact that you were "amused" by the idea of a company acting morally, concerns me.

Re:Well Duh

[n0wak]

I don't like football games myself, but everyone I know that is in the know says that SEGA's offering is far better than EA's. Of course, "better" doesn't mean "better sales", as the Madden brand recognition goes a long way.

First they fight...

[ihatesco]

then they end up in bed.

Electronic Arts was sued by ESPN because EA tried to create a fictional "EA Sports Network" to brand their videogames... they already did it with the EANN (electronic arts news network) spoofing CNN in the Desert Strike/Jungle Strike series for the Sega Genesis but in the case of EANN they came over clean.

Can't find historical pages about this lawsuit, but there comes some quotes from google and google groups :)

google post [google.com] (need to get to the part where it quotes EASN and ESPN).
ESPN versus CSPN [bizjournals.com] (need to get to page 3)

Re:First they fight...

[ihatesco]

Oh, yes... Everything2.com entry cites this incident as well...

clickety [everything2.com]

Conflict? Not Too Surprised

[the_riaa]

ABC owns ESPN. ABC also employs John Madden for it's Monday Night Football broadcast, Madden being the namesake of the video game juggernaut. For years, before the Sega/ESPN deal, and hell, before ABC hired Madden, during games occasionally EA Madden footage was shown in games to show replays, strategies, etc.

Before Sega's partnership, the ESPN name was branded on other titles - but none of those were featured in ESPN broadcasts. If I were Sega, I wouldn't fret too much about this deal. EA's ponying up the money to slap their logo all around the pre-game show, and I'm sure ESPN would've gladly taken Sega's money if they would've offered as much/more. Capitalism? Sure. But do you still see tons of those Warren Sapp/Tracey Morgan commercials for ESPN NFL Football during ESPN broadcasts? I know I sure see a lot of them - almost as many as for their show Playmakers.

Oh, and Sega's offerings have been better in my eyes than Madden the past few years, but you have to give EA credit for their stranglehold on the market.

Re:Conflict? Not Too Surprised

[jpu8086]

Good point. Minor error: Disney owns ABC. Disnet owns ESPN. So, they're siblings controlled by the wishes of the parent.

Something to note.

[illuminata]

On ESPNews, for the Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia game, ESPN NFL Football was used to predict what might happen, and not Madden NFL 2004.

Another round of Sega vs EA

[derrickh]

I see it as a slap to the Sega's face by both ESPN and especially EA. EA and Sega have been at each other's throats since the early days of the Genesis (EA refused to pay Sega's liscencing fees for a while) and flared up again when the dreamcast debuted(The only next gen console EA never supported).

It's hard to understand how 2 big corporations can 'dislike' one another, but somehow, it's happened.

D

Visual Concepts loses again

[Tom Courtenay]

Sega hasn't done anything right with VC's games since the DC.

• They don't market the games. There's very little advertising for some incredible products.
• They don't appear to be targetting EA's customers. Why not? Let them know that the alternatives to NBA Live & Madden are often *superior*!
• They're not pushing the online capabilities at all!

EA's games can't go online with X-box Live. Sega's have been able to since last year, so why don't we hear more about it? I'd be surprised to see the 2Kx

Re:Visual Concepts loses again

[Dsal]

There are all kinds of innovations in this year's ESPN. There is much less innovation from last year's Madden to this year's Madden.

I'd say the addition of the "Crib" mode gimmick among others is a definite attempt at targetting EA's customers. Part of EAs success in their sports games is their use of putting references to pop and sports culture in their games. Madden himself, Al Michaels, the Horse Trailer Player of the Game: they're all technically extras that aren't actual gameplay, yet it makes the g

Re:Visual Concepts loses again

[Tom Courtenay]

I'd say the addition of the "Crib" mode gimmick among others is a definite attempt at targetting EA's customers.

Good point; the previous 2K games didn't have any real rewards for successful play. I stand corrected on this. It's definitely a direct result of competition with EA.

the running game in this year's ESPN is so much more rewarding than Madden's.

I disagree with this. Up until this year I was always happier with 2K's running game. After playing both extensively, I can't stand by that any

Typical from what I've seen...

[BenSnyder]

The day Madden 2004 came out there was much rejoicing and bouquets of flowers were thrown at the game from every reviewer possible.

The day NFL ESPN Football came out... nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. The next day, crickets. The next day, I already had the game and made a post on the IGN.com board about it. As far as I know, that was one of the first reviews (albeit on a message board) of the game on the Net. Finally, that night GameSpot posted their review. The next day, IGN.com had theirs. In previou