Browse by Tags
All Tags »
NBA Europe Live (
RSS)
Posted
Oct 13 2008, 11:43 AM
I was delighted to be in attendance and present the game ball at the O2 Arena in London last night, where the New Jersey Nets squeaked past the Miami Heat 94-92 in what turned out to be a very entertaining game for the sold out crowd of nearly 19,000.
EA SPORTS is the proud primary sponsor of NBA Europe Live, with our goal to support the growth of the league outside of North America, and to help bring world-class basketball to Europe each October as part of the slate of pre-season games. I was fascinated to experience how knowledgeable the crowd was about the nuances of the game, and the organizing team did a great job of bringing a true NBA experience of sports-meets-entertainment to London, including courtside celebrities (Jay-Z), both sets of cheerleaders (a big hit with the crowd), and non-stop activities during the stoppages in play.
Here is a photo taken before the tip-off, proving that once and for all that not only can white men not jump, they even have real trouble standing comfortably on their tip-toes...
Posted
Oct 09 2008, 05:05 PM
Earlier today we announced the outstanding sales numbers from Europe for the first few days of availability of
FIFA 09, with over 1.2m copies of the game having being sold through in the first week of availability. As delighted as I am to see the fruits of the hard work of the development team paying off with a resounding vote of confidence from football video game fans, I am equally excited to see the progress we are making with the online experience for the title and across our EA SPORTS portfolio.
By Tuesday afternoon, over 410,000 FIFA 09 players had competed in over 2 million online matches, and our server data is reporting over 700k matches per day on the PS3 and Xbox 360. And of course this is before the game ships in the North American market, which happens next week. If there was ever a title to bring gamers together from around the world, obviously FIFA 09 had the best opportunity to do just that…and these numbers bode well for the success of our future plans with this franchise leading up to WC2010 in South Africa.
The quality of this year’s FIFA title is undeniable – currently our review scores are averaging in the high 80s, and we’re even tracking in the mid 80s and seven points up from last year on the PC (and I am sure all my friends in the PC sports gaming world will be very happy to see the quality of the product we are delivering this year). We’ve launched the two highest rated games of this console generation in the past month, and we remain committed to quality and innovation.
NBA LIVE 09 launched this week, and I’ll be in London this weekend in support of our sponsorship of
NBA Europe Live as we continue to partner with the NBA to bring world-class basketball to markets outside of the US. I’ll be at the O2 Arena on Sunday for the Miami Heat vs. New Jersey Nets match up. Let me know if any of you plan to attend, and we’ll see if we can meet up and say hi…