Former Executive Vice President of EA Sports Andrew Wilson has taken over as the publisher’s CEO, EA announced today. Wilson delivered a brief message to employees, shareholders, and customers in a message posted to EA’s news blog.

Wilson took over EA Sports in August 2011 and has been with the company for 11 years. He will take over the position left vacant by previous CEO John Riccitiello’s departure in March.

“I envision EA as the World’s Greatest Games Company,” Wilson said. “This is not about what we are aiming for or what we will become. Rather, it is about an unfaltering commitment to what we will be every day. This is an attitude that must drive our culture as one team.”

“I also believe EA’s strategy is sound. Our focus on our talent, our brands and our platform together with our investment in next-generation consoles, mobile and PC free-to-play, as part of our ongoing transition to digital, is right. But we have plenty of work ahead to ensure our collective success.”

Wilson takes the reins in a difficult period. Riccitiello left the company after it failed to meet yearly financial expectations, though new consoles arriving in November will likely give the start of Wilson’s tenure a significant boost.

The post Electronic Arts appoints EA Sports head Andrew Wilson its new CEO appeared first on Game News.

Madden 25 is officially here, and if you go online, you’re guaranteed to see a whole lot of Seattle, San Francisco, Green Bay, and Washington. The teams change, but bandwagon fans always stay the same, and they love their powerhouses. Fortunately, you don’t have to use a Super Bowl contender to do well online in Madden. You don’t necessarily even need to use a playoff contender.

The teams listed here won’t be winning much of anything in real life, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be dangerous. Whether because of a mobile quarterback, a particularly great cornerback, or just ridiculous overall team speed, each of these underdogs have a chance to rise up and best the likes of the Seahawks in a way that their sad sack counterparts probably never will. If nothing else, it can be a nice bit of wish fulfillment for a few long suffering fanbases.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccs have flown under the radar, but they still have some talent. Darrelle Revis and his 99 man coverage heads up a strong, hard-hitting secondary that also includes safety Dashon Goldson and Mark Barron. The offense, meanwhile, boasts two very reliable targets in Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams, as well as highly touted second-year rusher Doug Martin. Quarterback Josh Freeman has taken his share of lumps in real-life, but in Madden, he’s a solid pocket passer with a cannon for an arm.

While not what you might call “explosive,” Tampa can nevertheless be very dangerous in the hands of a capable player. All you have to do is lean on Martin to pick up consistent yards, and let Jackson pick up first downs on hitches and throws over the middle. Bonus points to anyone who wears the infamous “creamsicle” uniforms in an online game.

Oakland Raiders

The Raiders may be the worst team in the NFL right now, but in Madden 25, they stand a chance of being semi-competent. In the right hands, they may even be dangerous. As in past years, Oaklands secret weapon is raw speed. Receivers Denarious Moore, Jacoboy Ford, and Rod Streater all boast 90+ speed, with Ford sitting at a cool 98. Running back Darren McFadden likewise carries an advantage in footrace, tied with Adrian Peterson for third fastest running back in the NFL.

The Raiders quarterback is Terrelle Pryor, who at 70 overall may not seem that intimidating, but his 90 speed makes him deadly with the read option. With the help of the new Precision Modifier and a plethora of new running options, a good player should be able to turn more talented opponents into pretzels. Be warned though: Oakland’s sub-par defense will probably result in a fair share of shootouts.

Buffalo Bills

Sad sack Buffalo hasn’t been to the playoffs since 1999–an eternity in the NFL. In real life, they are in the middle of a coaching and quarterback transition, and theyre already racked with injuries. However, the Bills still have some interesting weapons. First, bench Kevin Kolb as soon as possible, and put in promising rookie EJ Manuel. Manuel has a good arm, and hes capable in the option game as well. Abuse Marquise Goodwin and his 98 speed on sweeps, and lean on star running back CJ Spiller with off tackle runs and screen passes.

After a while, you’ll find that the Bills are surprisingly explosive for a team thats widely seen as a basement dweller. With safety Jarius Byrd and cornerback Stephen Gilmore, and a stout pass rush lead by Mario Williams, the defense isn’t half bad either. As a team, theyre Exhibit A in the case against paying too much attention to overall ratings.

Tennessee Titans

When the Titans come up in real life, it’s usually to complain about Chris Johnson’s unreliable fantasy production. In Madden, they tend to be similarly overlooked. You might want to look again though, because theyre basically the rich person’s Buffalo Bills, whom we discussed a moment before. Both of Tennessee’s lines are stacked with strong players, and in a game that is sure to be dominated by running backs, infamous strong safety Bernard Pollard is an asset.

On offense, tight end Delanie Walker is a serviceable replacement for Jared Cook, and Kenny Britt is a good possession receiver. QB Jake Locker’s speed makes him ideal for the read-option game in tandem with Chris Johnson, who continues to be more dangerous in Madden than in real life thanks to his staggering 99 speed. All in all, the Titans are a fun surprise to spring on a friend or a random opponent. Wear the Houston Oilers baby blues for extra class.

Arizona Cardinals

The poor Cardinals are trapped below the Seahawks and the Niners in what has quite suddenly become the best division in football. In Madden 25, however, they have a chance to shine a bit. QB Carson Palmer doesn’t get a lot of respect from fans, but he’s a far sight better than the likes of Ryan Lindley, and he’s more than capable of getting the ball to Larry Fitzgerald. Cornerback Patrick Peterson, meanwhile, is your single best weapon on defense and special teams, equally capable of breaking the game open with a kickoff return for a touchdown or a pick six.

Those two weapons alone are enough to make the Cardinals more dangerous than most people realize, especially now that they have a semi-competent quarterback. If your friends laugh when you pick Arizona, throw one deep to Fitzgerald. That will shut them up in a hurry.

Ready for overtime?

Those are our picks for underrated teams, but if you have any faves that arent getting much love, feel free to share in the comments.

And if you’re looking for more sports love, check out our list of the best sports games and our hands-on preview of NBA 2K14.

The post Five Madden 25 underdog teams worth playing online appeared first on Game News.

Real-world sports seasons have their own unique rhythms; so, too, does the sports game landscape. Its unofficially kicked off every July with college football and concludes the following March with baseball. In between, pro football, soccer, hockey, and basketball titles all compete for our attention.

Many themes develop over the course of a sports release schedule; a time capsule of sorts, and I love to analyze where these games intersect and diverge. Now that the dust has settled on the last releases of the 2011-12 sports game season, these themes are easy to spot.

1) The annual roster update is a myth

The next time someone dismisses a console sports simulation as nothing more than a roster update, glare at them. Nastily. The notion that developers have large teams of 50 or more people building games that are simply adjustments to player ratings and team affiliations is an insult to all of us. Simply put, 2012s major sports titles all contained significant modifications to core gameplay, presentation, and/or online features that took significant effort and risk to build.

Did all of them work? Of course not. Just because someone spends 4 months and $350,000 to create a new mechanic or control scheme is no guarantee that it will be well-received by the public. Did I like MLB 12 The Shows new Pulse Pitching? Not hardly but it introduced a new way to play a major part of the game. What about FIFAs new Impact Engine? It altered the way players interacted with each other (often well but occasionally with hilarious results (opens in new tab)) and set the development team up nicely for future adjustments for realistic physics. These are just two examples.

Anyone claiming a new sports title is just a roster update doesnt come close to understanding what our games are about, and I guarantee you they havent spent more than a few minutes (if at all) experiencing what theyre dissing. The proof is right there in front of them.

2) Online is a mess

At least were not alone. The recent launch debacle of Diablo III proved that just about any game with an online element can suffer at release, and plenty of sports games failed miserably; some continue to struggle.

A few of my favorite games of last year top the list of online messes. NBA 2K12 was a disaster out of the gate with online play. Between dropped connections, a non-functional website, and a comically under-explained Online Association mode that confused everyone, it was an ugly underscore to an otherwise amazing experience. MLB 12 The Show continued its sad legacy of lousy online multiplayer, with atrocious lag and dropped games on both the PS3 and Vita. NCAA Football 12 had a near-catastrophic series of bugs in its Online Dynasty mode that ruined the experience for a number of its dedicated fans.

There are legitimate reasons for each of these, too. Online code is often built on top of creaky previous-generation infrastructure thats too expensive or risky to rebuild, and the unpredictability of an exponentially larger group of people playing your game than you can ever test for is an issue. Even so, that doesnt help gamers like me who play the majority of their games versus friends over the internet and doesnt sit well moving forward, either.

3) Sports sells

Despite some of your hardcore gamer friends scoffing at your collection of sports titles, the fact is they consistently sell well. FIFA, Madden, and NBA 2K typically stay in the top 10 sales numbers for several months after release (if not longer), which is good news in a constantly evolving games landscape. After all, in the sales downturn were experiencing now, so-called sure things are much more likely to get made and supported than riskier bets.

On the other hand, sports games are incredibly expensive to develop, in large part because of the massive license fees publishers must pay for the rights to use the player names and the leagues. As weve seen with other titles, a good sales number doesnt necessarily equal a profitable one. With several key licenses up for renewal over the next few years including the MLB and NFL it will be interesting to see if exclusivity remains, or if license fees are reduced in order to open the floor to a larger group of players like the old days.

4) Its a patch culture

Go ahead, name one sports game from this past season that wasnt patched. Cant do it, can you? Like most games anymore, the patch culture has settled permanently on us and shows no signs of waning. This is obviously good for many reasons roster adjustments after the game releases, and the ability to fix potentially game-breaking bugs that arent discovered in time but inherently it gives developers and publishers an out. Release dates are easier to hit when you know you can fix things after the fact.

But what about the experience between Day One and the patch? And what if the patch actually makes things worse which are the claims of many people about certain updates made to several games this season?

With sports games being so hyper-complex to build and test these days, its inevitable that software will ship with issues. Theres no studio in the world that can prevent that, no matter how good they are. However, the inevitability of patches with sometimes comically huge lists of fixes made (opens in new tab) does nothing to dissuade people from feeling that these titles are released as incomplete works instead of finished games.

5) Legends are the new hotness

Between NBA 2K12s sublime The Greatest mode, featuring a mother lode of Hall of Fame players and classic teams, and NHL 12, loaded with hockey greats like Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky, theres been a heavy push towards historical representations. Madden 12 also got into the fray, although you needed to buy Legends Pack for use in Ultimate Team to use guys like Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice.

Mining the history of sports can be a beautiful addition to many games, especially when its done well. Between the period-specific presentation and complete rosters of full teams, NBA 2K12 ran away from the field. Meanwhile, NHL 12s rather clunky implementation of their legends in Be A Pro combined with the fact that hockey players are infinitely less distinguishable on the ice from their instantly recognizable hoops-playing counterparts left much to be desired.

Even so, theres much more to be done with players from the past. In many ways, truth is better than fiction, and there are hundreds of real-life tales that can be told if developers can dive into the personal or emotional sides of players. Imagine trying to get 56 straight hits as Joe DiMaggio or inhabiting Charles Barkley trying to win an NBA title at the end of his career. Heres hoping the door thats been cracked this past year gets kicked wide open as we move into a new console era.

6) Pleasing everyone is impossible

I enjoyed most of the big games this year, but at times I have felt like an idiot for feeling that way. Ive played hundreds of games of NHL 12 against friends, for example, having a blast the whole time. Yet a perusal of message boards reveals a vocal group of people railing against cheesers in the EASHL and money goals that can be abused online. Are they right and Im wrong?

Same thing with MLB 2K12; Ive sunk 40+ hours in the My Player mode for my starting pitcher, thoroughly enjoying much of it. I rarely see the bugs and choppy gameplay that many others do; does that invalidate others or make me an outlier? I cant deny that Im having a good time, even though my experience is a small chunk of the overall package.

The bottom line is that its simply impossible for developers to please everyone or, for that matter, even close to everyone. For every highly-rated game, there are hundreds of detractors complaining about items small or large that for them render the game busted. The closer that these games get to ultra-realism, the louder the criticisms get. Its not an enviable position, and the internet makes that vocal group that much more powerful.

7) Newbies are in trouble

7) Newbies are in trouble There are few things more painful than introducing someone to a modern sports game. Handing a controller to a friend or family member who hasnt played in the past few years is a recipe for frustration. Several years ago, the Wii had several sports titles geared toward newcomers that didnt sell particularly well, and since then the pendulum has swung wildly in the other direction.

With rare exceptions like NHL 12s old-school Sega controls, managing the action on the court or the field can be a challenge for casual fans and an impossibility for newbies. Honestly, I dont think Ive used more than 20% of the abilities of my coaching and individual player moves in NBA 2K12 despite an obscene amount of playing time. FIFA seems simple at first, until you see how you can adjust you teams strategies, make multiple types of passes or shots, and move your player in multiple ways. Madden is even nuttier, from playcalling to pre-snap options and in-play jukes, trucks, and receiver adjustments.

Sales are still good for many of these games, but old-fashioned tutorials are needed to expand the market. While NBA 2K12 has a terrific one even if I cant remember what Ive been taught at practice when Im in an actual game FIFA and Madden in particular would do well to explain how, exactly, their game really works.

Looking ahead

As we put 2011-12 behind us, E3 looms with promises bigger, better, faster sports experiences. What are the themes that will develop next year? Who knows but I have a feeling itll be dramatically different. I know Ill enjoy the ride.

The post Box Score: The Top 7 themes of the last years sports game season appeared first on Game News.

Can you tell us what you announced this week?

We announced that we are bringing NFL Blitz to the PS3 and the Xbox 360 and we’re very excited. We are going to be delivering this title as a digital download. It’ll be $15 for PSN and XBLA.

We noticed that this is a 7-on-7 game. Is there any reason you went with that number instead of 8-on-8?

Our focus was to recreate the traditional Blitz arcade experience, making sure that we were able to deliver twitch gameplay and fast-paced gameplay that would run at 60 frames per second. That was paramount to us and having that 7-on-7 gameplay as our focus, we were able to achieve that. The 8-on-8 were the later versions of Blitz. We wanted to go back and start with the traditional version of Blitz and 7-on-7 of course that. 8-on-8 was something that Blitz did much later on in its life, but it’s not the direction we wanted for this version.

When we were checking out the trailer, we didn’t notice any gratuitous late hits? Do you have late hits in the game?

We have late hits in the game, but the game is still not finished and it’s still under review by the NFL. We do also have first and 30, no injuries, no penalties and on-fire players.

Do you have actual players in the game and, if so, how do they feel about being involved and engulfed in flames?

Do you have a name for this engine that this is running on? Is it the same as the Madden NFL engine?

No it’s not running on the same Madden engine. It’s technology that we have adapted in order to bring this to life. There’s not a specific name for it so to speak.

As an XBLA and PSN game does that mean there’s going to be online play?

Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s one of the great things about our delivery mechanism for the game being digital download. While we have a compelling single-player experience, the bulk of our feature-set is online focused. Clearly people who are downloading the game are going to have online connectivity, so they’ll be able to take full advantage of that. We have online head-to-head, online co-op and what’s called the Elite League. Instead of a card game, Elite League is akin to what Madden Ultimate Team was. Our game takes a little bit of a twist on that with regards to the cards that you collect and how you collect them.

The collectability aspect is the motivating factor in Elite League. It’s still about purchasing card packs, it’s still about formulating a fantasy team, but at the same time you’re improving your team by collecting the players and trading in the teams of players to get better cards, which you can then substitute into your lineup. Through all of this collecting and trading in, you can get to a point where you have a team of the best players in the game. It’s not a monetized mode. You basically collect the Blitz currency, which is called Blitz bucks, as you play online games and built up a bank account of Blitz bucks that you can then spend on cards packs.

Can you tell us about Blitz Battles?

Aside from our Elite League, we also have Blitz Battles. Essentially Blitz Battles has two different team types. It’s got head-to-head and Blitz Teams. The overarching meta game of Blitz Battles is that there are these Blitz boards and, when you first start, we ask you what your location is and we group you together. There’s three different Blitz boards: the local, regional and national. So we ask you your location, we actually group you together with other people in the same location you’re in. For instance, if we were to start up a game here, we’d say “We’re in Florida,” and our weekly games inside of the Blitz board would be with 25 other Floridians and we’d jockey for position on this Blitz board as you play through a Blitz style of games. In those games, you’re earning ranking points, which will move you up and down this Blitz board. You’re progressing through these boards with the eventually reward of getting into a Hall of Fame.

It’s a leaderboard with a different twist. It’s alive, you can see people moving up and down the board after each game and everybody is in your locality.

Can you rise through the Blitz Board leaderboards with your friends?

That’s a huge focus for Blitz. There’s no better to play Blitz with or against your friends. So, in that Blitz Battles mode, you can create a Blitz team and you can invite either one of your online friends or you can play with someone local to you, just a guest like a roommate or a friend that comes over. You can create a team, you can customize your team, you can create the team name, team logo and a banner that creates a theme or gives your team some character. You can then compete against other teams of two players, and then your team can move up and down the Blitz board.

So, you can play two players local against other people online?

Yes, that’s a new feature for us. It’s unique our title. None of our football titles have it. You can sit down with your buddy and you guys can compete against other people online. That’s present in our Blitz Teams feature and our other online mode, online co-op.

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The post NFL Blitz – first screens, trailer and an interview with EA Sports appeared first on Game News.