Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane has been named the cover athlete for EA Sports’ NHL 10. At just 20 years of age, Kane is the youngest cover athlete ever for the franchise. Kane won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 2008 and this year led the Blackhawks to the Western Conference Finals.
NHL 10 hits store shelves on Sept. 8, 2009.
GameStop has revealed the Madden NFL 10 opening video, entitled ‘Own the Moment.’ Without further adieu…
Former Oklahoma standout Blake Griffin will be officially named the cover athlete for EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball 10 title later today.
Last season, Griffin averaged 22.7 points per game, 14.4 rebounds per game, set the Big 12 record with 30 double-doubles, and was the winner of the John R. Wooden Award presented to the nation’s most outstanding college basketball player. he is expected to be the top selection in this week’s NBA Draft.
NCAA Basketball 10 is expected to hit stores in November of this year.
In an interview with Gamasutra, EA Sports President Peter Moore disclosed the company’s plans to help put together a roster for EA Sports MMA, a competitor to THQ’s UFC franchise.
UFC owners Zuffa also control MMA leagues like the WEC and the now defunct Pride, as well as a large majority of famous fighters — leaving it unclear which MMA stars would be able to sign for Electronic Arts’ title.
Is it possible to bring UFC titles into the EA game, since the license is elsewhere? Gamasutra asked Moore, as part of an in-depth new interview about the state of EA Sports.
Moore commented: “We are looking obviously at every fighter that we can, that we feel is applicable from a quality level and then analyzing their image rights, and if they’re available and we want them — then we’ll get them. If they’re not then we’ll move on to the next fighter.”
The mention of image rights is notable because of a controversy with THQ’s UFC game late last year, in which UFC fighter Jon Fitch allegedly refused to sign a lifetime contract for his likeness to be used by THQ in its games — and was removed from the UFC. (He later recanted and continued to fight in the league.)
When asked about fighters such as UFC star Lyoto Machida, Moore added: “Machida? A great fighter. There’s plenty of great fighters that have their image rights, and we’ll start announcing fighters pretty soon.”
It sounds like a hot and heated race may be going on behind the scenes – Moore & EA reaching out to fighters (UFC-bound and otherwise) who have retained their own image rights, and with Zuffa working to secure lifetime deals with all fighting talent. If EA Sports MMA can sign any current UFC talent to their title, it would be a huge coup – especially a fighter like Machida, who is currently 15-0-0 and the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
Currently, it is all but confirmed that Fedor Emelianenko, Gegard Mousasi, Tim Sylvia, and Randy Couture are on-board for the game.
The demo for NCAA Football 10 will be available today in the X-Box Live Marketplace & the PlayStation Network.
Available in the demo will be Florida vs. Oklahoma featuring two-minutes quarters and adjustable game difficulty.
THQ has revealed the cover for WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010 and five wrestlers grace the cover: John Cena, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Edge and The Undertaker.
The first game info will be revealed during a press event during Summer Slam weekend August 23.
In a press release, Brian Coleman, vice president of glabal brand management for THQ had this to say about the game: “Cena, Undertaker, Orton, Edge and Mysterio are incredible Superstars who represent the athleticism, creativity, individuality and strength of today’s live WWE programming. These powerful traits symbolize our vision to give players extensive creative freedom and make “WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010″ the most authentic, entertaining and compelling simulation of live WWE programming to date.”
At the official NCAA Football 10 website, a new video has been posted showcasing the gameplay changes & improvements coming to the game.
The video begins by stating that the game has over 1,000 new animations and then displays added or improved features including: shotgun & motion hand-offs, pocket formations, pocket presence, WR slips, wrap swats, defensive line tip passes, directional defensive line moves (on right stick), gang tackles, non-catch animations, and over the shoulder catches.
Towards the end of the video, we see NCAA 09 vs. NCAA 10 comparison clips showing the improvements in sideline catches, throwing out of sacks (layered blending), and WR/DB interactions.
Madden NFL 10 lead designer Ian Cummings has begun posting one full game of Madden NFL 10. Below you can see the first quarter of action between the Falcons and Chiefs.
Keep in mind the following items, says Cummings: Alpha version, game is work in progress – Capture device messed up a few times, a few plays were lost – Stadium audio is turned off (since Madden 10 music hasn’t yet been announced). This means no ref audio, PA announcer, or music – Youtube hosed the audio.
Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals will be named the NHL 2K10 cover athlete on Friday.
From 2K:
In celebration of the announcement, Ovechkin will be participating in a first-time ever public outdoor hockey motion capture session Tuesday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from 8:30-11:30pm PT. Joining Ovechkin on the ice will be Vancouver Canucks center and 2009 Selke Trophy finalist, Ryan Kesler(notes), along with play-by-play commentator for the San Jose Sharks, Randy Hahn, who will act as host MC. The event is free and open to the public to watch, as synthetic ice will be laid down to create a special hockey rink and 2K Sports’ game producers will put Ovechkin through a number of dynamic drills to capture his signature style data for NHL 2K10.
Also, it is expected that the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane will be on the cover of competitor EA Sports’ NHL 10.
After being reported here at SGN yesterday, Dwight Howard was officially named cover athlete of EA Sports’ NBA Live 10 today. Check out the cover athlete video below, with narration from Mos Def:
With this announcement, 2K Sports has been able to have some fun at EA’s expense on twitter – though they have posted and deleted the message twice this afternoon. Back in March of this year, Howard made these comments to IGN:
“When we play NBA 2K9 on the plane, I never lose,” said Howard. “Everywhere I go I have my PlayStation 3 and that’s all I do is play games.”
This is not the first time an NBA Live cover athlete showed an affinity for the NBA 2K franchise. Months before being named the NBA Live 08 cover athlete, Gilbert Arenas had this to say when asked if he played NBA Live:
“No. I play NBA 2K. It’s real, the NBA 2K. The other one, now … it’s too fake.”
In NBA Live’s defense, since that time the game has worked on increasing it’s realism and has even brought on-board one of the top gameplay developers from NBA 2K, Mike Wang. However, let’s hope future NBA Live cover athletes are vetted more than Howard & Arenas were.
