Nextgen ESPN deerer than we thought.

[M Harlem 231]

EA Puts ESPN In Next Generation NBA Live 07

ESPN Video Clips Latest Integration
"This is the first year in the 15-year deal that Electronic Arts signed with ESPN to integrate the ESPN brand, programming and sports personalities into its sports game franchises. NBA Live 07 will be the first game to offer sports fans streaming video clips of ESPN programming on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

In addition to the video clips, which will be updated daily and can exceed 20 minutes in length, gamers can get up-to-the-minute sports news through a scrolling ESPN Ticker as well as ESPN Radio updates every 20 minutes. Gamers can even stream podcasts of ESPN Radio programs like “The Dan Patrick Show” into the game and turn off the music soundtrack, allowing the radio show to play in the background. ESPN.com stories can also be accessed through the game.

This type of integration will expand to multiple EA Sports games in the coming years, changing the way sports fans connect with the real world. Raphael Poplock, General Manager of Interactive Gaming for ESPN, said the network’s vision is to blur the line between the virtual world and the sports world.

“You get the one-stop shop of the convergence of the game world and the real-time sports world,” said Poplock. “ It’s something that is pretty revolutionary in the marketplace.”

Brent Nielsen, senior producer of NBA Live 07 at EA Sports, said the game publisher is creating two different types of ESPN integration.

“From a high level standpoint, we wanted to integrate ESPN into our sports games in a way that was meaningful to our consumers through streaming and online features included in a sports lifestyle feature set,” said Nielsen. “In addition, the ESPN personalities and branding, as well as the TV presentation of the sport, has been seamlessly integrated into the gameplay.”

All of this fall’s EA Sports games will have a new streamlined user interface that includes an ESPN section. Within this section of the game, players will be able to interact with the various ESPN options (which will vary by game). Poplock said that while you have to seek out the ESPN video features in NBA Live 07, future iterations of this game and others will make this content more seamless.

“ There will be many iterations of this project as new games ship,” said Polock. “ The goal is to one day being able to show video of other sports inside of the game world.”

There are still rights and legal issues to be resolved with each sports league for the use of actual NBA, NFL, MLB, NASCAR and other clips to be streamed onto game consoles. For the NBA game, both ESPN and EA believe the ongoing negotiations will be fruitful.

While video clips and shows will be in standard definition this fall, as early as next year Nielsen said high definition video clips can be streamed to Xbox 360 and PS3.

“Videogames are another compelling medium like TV, radio, the Internet and magazines,” said Poplock. “We’ve been in the business for a while now, and I think we’ve done an OK job. But we look at EA, which is really the best of breed interactive software provider, and we look at ourselves, we tend to think of ourselves as the strongest sports news and media companies, and bringing them together is really compelling for sports fans and gamers.”

One day in the near future, the half-time show of Madden could be a real streaming video show from ESPN. SportsCenter may even make an appearance down the road, assuming the many rights hurdles are cleared. These types of possibilities are great for sports fans, who can game without missing out on the real world of sports."

-Sportsgamer

Sportscenter as half-time shows thats nextgen.

[BIG GREEN]

Most people don't really care about this espn integration..cause if you have xbox live...you have cable. With that said...if they can somehow make the video game really emulate whats going on in the real nba...then it could be worth something.

[Matthew]

As I said to Jae, nba live is looking like a really good website, but not a good videogame. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like another year of halo, madden and nba 2k for me.

[Cloudy]

15 YEARS?! They're abusing the 15 year contract...

[Matthew]

Within 5 years EA won't be the dominant videogame company if they continue at this rate. In 15 years, who knows where they'll be...

[BIG GREEN]

If they continue buying up smaller..and actual good developers..they should remain on top. Like a parasite that sucks off of everything.

[koberulz]

deerer?

[Cloudy]

^spammah!

I hate EA... They keep buying official licenses for long long years and they eventually stop developing a proper game... Games like Pro Evolution would've been way better if they got the licenses. EA is too rich...

[CERVANTES]

Well, it's all about marketing. How many Bentley motors ad's do you see on TV ? Quality is known, but some other companies need to make tons of ads to be famous. I don't see that amount of publicity by 2kSports and I prefer their games.

[Bryant24]

I could care less about this feature. I want ESPN announcers, camera angles, pre-game, half-time, and post-game show. I want them to use the ESPN license for stuff actually involving the game.

[M Harlem 231]

deerer?

deeper my bad.

[chrisinfinity]

man i have a hard decision between nba live and nba 2k7............ uih nba lvie!

[bigh0rt]

man i have a hard decision between nba live and nba 2k7............ uih nba lvie!

Thank you for your thought filled contribution...

I swear, I think some people just like to see their own posts for the hell of it...

[The Hitman]

Most people don't really care about this espn integration..cause if you have xbox live...you have cable. With that said...if they can somehow make the video game really emulate whats going on in the real nba...then it could be worth something.

Your absolutely right. IMPROVE the Dynasty and the majority of gamers will be happy.

[Andrew]

While I'm not as big on it as the gameplay, Dynasty Mode and so forth I have to say it looked pretty sweet. The concept of being able to connect to ESPN content worldwide without having to leave the video game experience is a cool idea, not the most attractive feature to me personally as I don't have an XBox 360 but it looks to be well done. Anyway, I'll get into that in more detail in the report.