A long-anticipated partnership between the biggest name in sports programming, ESPN, and the biggest name in sports videogames, EA Sports, has finally borne fruit. Back in January, 2005, game developer EA Sports and sports entertainment giant ESPN penned a long-term development agreement. Now, the first game to come out of that partnership has just been released.
[i]MVP 06 NCAA Baseball[/i] will be the first game to showcase ESPN content integration. Players with an online hook-up will get an in-game, live ESPN ticker, just like the one seen on TV, that will give up to the minute, real world, sports updates. ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates will be available every 20 minutes, as well as sports news direct from ESPN.com.
“EA and ESPN are creating one place, inside our EA SPORTS games, where anyone who is passionate about real sports and sports videogames can come for their ultimate sports fix,” said Todd Sitrin, vice president of marketing for EA.
The two sports leaders plan to continue their partnership with the release of EA SPORTS [i]Fight Night Round 3[/i], shipping this Spring, which will also include ESPN content integration.