ESPN Integ, on PC

by **cobbb11** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:26 am

The ESPN Integration sounds like a really fun feature that brings more of a reason to start up Live 07 than just for a basketball game. Does anyone know if the PC (and all current-gen for that matter) gets shafted somehow in this aspect? It's already obvious we won't get all (if any) signature shots, procedural awareness, more in-depth stats/ratings etc. Now all the ESPN stuff was shown with the 360's Live menu. So what I want to know is will PC get everything (ticker, radio, podcast, etc) that 360 gets, or will it be dumbed down? Because this is something the PC can do at least as well, although for most of us, much much better, than the 360 since our computers are pretty much always online, where as I'm not so sure about console's connetitivity. (I don't have one btw).

by **hipn** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:28 am

ESPN for curent-gen, including PC will only be the ESPN updates and draft and the small things, not scoreboards, or front-end, presentation, etc...

by **BHD** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:30 am

hipn wrote:ESPN for curent-gen, including PC will only be the ESPN updates and draft and the small things, not scoreboards, or front-end, presentation, etc...

shit...

by **Anthony15** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:42 am

BHD wrote:
hipn wrote:ESPN for curent-gen, including PC will only be the ESPN updates and draft and the small things, not scoreboards, or front-end, presentation, etc...
shit...

Thats why we got patch makers that will make a scoreboard and front end presentations with TNT or ESPN! (y)

by **cobbb11** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:45 pm

Oh, i didn't think the next-gen even had a scoreboard and that aesthetic stuff. Hell, we've been doing that for like 3 Live's now. I just meant the actual "meat" of the new ESPN partnership like the ticker on the bottom, podcasts, ESPN radio, and the shows or whatever else they had. I mean they never really advertised "Hey, we got a realistic ESPN scoreboard!" It was all about the fact that you could get ESPN, and info on all sports besides just B-ball, within the game. As long as all that's in, then I'm happy.

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:32 pm

The PC will have the same amount of ESPN content as the PS2 and Xbox versions. The video clips, podcasts etc are only on Next Gen.

by **cobbb11** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:51 pm

So if the clips and podcasts are only next-gen, which it shouldn't be because there is no reason why the PC and download and stream things from the net even easier than the 360, what ESPN content does the PC, Xbox, and PS2 actually get? I mean if we get the sports ticker, then why not everything else since it's all coming from the same place as far as I can see.

by **cobbb11** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:55 pm

I saw this at Gamespot in their news about ESPN Integration for NBA 07 for 360.
[Editor's Note: GameSpot has learned today that the ESPN integration described above will only be available in next-gen versions of NBA Live 07, and will not be found in the PSP and the PS2 versions of the game as originally stated by EA. We have corrected the story to reflect this information.]

Now while it says next-gen only, I can't hope but feel a bit elated that they didn't mention the PC or Xbox.

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:21 pm

PC, Xbox and PS2 get the news ticker and various ESPN branded features in Dynasty Mode. The PC version will not have any of the ESPN Integration features of the Next Gen version.

by **SkipToMy_Lou** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:47 pm

Andrew wrote:The PC will have the same amount of ESPN content as the PS2 and Xbox versions. The video clips, podcasts etc are only on Next Gen.

Do you know why this is? When computers have better capabilities then 360 anyway ?

by **Tuomas** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:31 pm

Because EA is lazy and is igonring the issue, it's easier to convert a finished ps2 to pc. They might even get extras by encouraging people to buy more next gen consoles.

by **Metsis** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:57 pm

SkipToMy_Lou wrote:
Andrew wrote:The PC will have the same amount of ESPN content as the PS2 and Xbox versions. The video clips, podcasts etc are only on Next Gen.

Do you know why this is? When computers have better capabilities then 360 anyway ?

Well, the PC is a tricky customer... There are many types of different connections and lots of different drivers and PC cards etc. on the PC. So it's not like a 360, which all will have similar drivers and means to connect to the internet.

Here's one horror picture for you... Imagine you are playing a game of NBA live 07 and it is running smoothly and all. Then all of a sudden the game starts to load a pod cast update via a modem connection and the game becomes next to unplayable with the strain of the loading... If all the PC users had high-end PCs and top of the line internet connections and they all had internet connections, then it would be easy and simple to implement like with the 360, but as there are no guarrantees that a PC has certain level of "power under the hood" or a broad band connection its tough to do this...

PC is a whole other beasts... The standard equipment of a console is a good and a bad thing... Good that all the machines have the same capabilities and good that they all have similar good internet connections and good that they all have the similar graphical power, but the bad thing is that the consoles thus cannot be updated (really updated, like getting a more powerful processor) and the power of the console will eventually fade and a new machine needs to be designed pretty much from scratch. When regarding a PC, a company can concentrate on a single part and make it better and sell only that part, since most people can actually modify their PCs with upgraded parts etc. But with that ability to update, comes the x-factor for game makers. How much power can the game makers expect the people to have. Can we have a successful product, if we make it for high end PCs? Can we have a successful product if we make it for low end PCs?

PC and making PC games is a lot trickier than console games. The developers know what resources they have to spend when designing for consoles... They don't have that luxury when designing for the PC.

by **BHD** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:18 pm

Anthony15 wrote:
BHD wrote:
hipn wrote:ESPN for curent-gen, including PC will only be the ESPN updates and draft and the small things, not scoreboards, or front-end, presentation, etc...
shit...

Thats why we got patch makers that will make a scoreboard and front end presentations with TNT or ESPN!

Oh yeah ;]
Almost forgot that...

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:43 am

SkipToMy_Lou wrote:Do you know why this is? When computers have better capabilities then 360 anyway ?

Metsis has pretty much summed it up.

by **cobbb11** on Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:31 am

Oh well, I'm sure some genius will figure out a hack to get acess to all the rest of the stuff. I still can't believe they'll give us the real-time, or close to real-time, sports ticker but not the rest of it. It makes no sense if it's all coming from ESPN. Do you have a link to your source for this info Andrew?

by **Silas** on Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:39 am

Metsis wrote:
SkipToMy_Lou wrote:
Andrew wrote:The PC will have the same amount of ESPN content as the PS2 and Xbox versions. The video clips, podcasts etc are only on Next Gen.

Do you know why this is? When computers have better capabilities then 360 anyway ?

Well, the PC is a tricky customer... There are many types of different connections and lots of different drivers and PC cards etc. on the PC. So it's not like a 360, which all will have similar drivers and means to connect to the internet.

Here's one horror picture for you... Imagine you are playing a game of NBA live 07 and it is running smoothly and all. Then all of a sudden the game starts to load a pod cast update via a modem connection and the game becomes next to unplayable with the strain of the loading... If all the PC users had high-end PCs and top of the line internet connections and they all had internet connections, then it would be easy and simple to implement like with the 360, but as there are no guarrantees that a PC has certain level of "power under the hood" or a broad band connection its tough to do this...

PC is a whole other beasts... The standard equipment of a console is a good and a bad thing... Good that all the machines have the same capabilities and good that they all have similar good internet connections and good that they all have the similar graphical power, but the bad thing is that the consoles thus cannot be updated (really updated, like getting a more powerful processor) and the power of the console will eventually fade and a new machine needs to be designed pretty much from scratch. When regarding a PC, a company can concentrate on a single part and make it better and sell only that part, since most people can actually modify their PCs with upgraded parts etc. But with that ability to update, comes the x-factor for game makers. How much power can the game makers expect the people to have. Can we have a successful product, if we make it for high end PCs? Can we have a successful product if we make it for low end PCs?

PC and making PC games is a lot trickier than console games. The developers know what resources they have to spend when designing for consoles... They don't have that luxury when designing for the PC.

I'd think the ability to turn off automatic updates from ESPN would fix the lagging problems that would be caused by downloading things. Also, as with any PC game you have the ability to turn graphics up or down.

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:41 am

cobbb11 wrote:Oh well, I'm sure some genius will figure out a hack to get acess to all the rest of the stuff. I still can't believe they'll give us the real-time, or close to real-time, sports ticker but not the rest of it. It makes no sense if it's all coming from ESPN. Do you have a link to your source for this info Andrew?

It's been reported in several previews so far and the information also comes straight from the producers as told to us at the Community Day last month.

by **cobbb11** on Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:41 am

I'm concerned that the ESPN Integ. could be a form of control for EA. What's to stop them from discontinuing the live sports ticker around this time next year and force everyone to upgrade to 08? Do we have some insurance plan that we can still get live sports stats playing Live 07 in 2010, 2011, etc? Or perhaps all the games from now on will stream from the exact same source at ESPN HQ (wherever that is) and no upgrade will be neccesary. Does anyone know the details of the EA/ESPN contract?

by **Old School Fool** on Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:40 am

cobbb11 wrote:Oh well, I'm sure some genius will figure out a hack to get acess to all the rest of the stuff. I still can't believe they'll give us the real-time, or close to real-time, sports ticker but not the rest of it. It makes no sense if it's all coming from ESPN. Do you have a link to your source for this info Andrew?

There was a Sports Ticker in the PC version NBA Live 2000.

Also, dude..

I'm pretty sure the PC version of Live 07 is gonna use the downloadable ESPN Bottomline style. It will be up-to-date but not totally.

I can't wait for patchers to patch the bottomline to make it look more ESPN-y.

by **cobbb11** on Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:43 am

Old School Fool wrote:
cobbb11 wrote:Oh well, I'm sure some genius will figure out a hack to get acess to all the rest of the stuff. I still can't believe they'll give us the real-time, or close to real-time, sports ticker but not the rest of it. It makes no sense if it's all coming from ESPN. Do you have a link to your source for this info Andrew?

There was a Sports Ticker in the PC version NBA Live 2000.

Never played it. What was it like? Real sports scores?

Bluesky · by **Andrew** on Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:21 pm

cobbb11 wrote:I'm concerned that the ESPN Integ. could be a form of control for EA. What's to stop them from discontinuing the live sports ticker around this time next year and force everyone to upgrade to 08? Do we have some insurance plan that we can still get live sports stats playing Live 07 in 2010, 2011, etc? Or perhaps all the games from now on will stream from the exact same source at ESPN HQ (wherever that is) and no upgrade will be neccesary. Does anyone know the details of the EA/ESPN contract?

It's possible I guess. The last time there was a live ticker (it was actually NBA Live 99, not NBA Live 2000) it wouldn't update after the season was done.

by **Jowe** on Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:24 pm

Yeh i remember that.. I also remember it causing some games to be unplayable or not start.

(Y)

But yeah, who needs great gameplay. Sports ticker (Y)

if they really want to go wild they can add in espn insider where you gotta pay ea sports money to look at your dynasty teams boxscores. (Y)

ESPN Integ, on PC

ESPN Integ, on PC

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