In an earnings call discussing the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 (October-December 2011) EA announced that through the initial three months of release Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 12 generated $ 39 million in digital revenue. That represents an boost of 69% over the very same period last year with FIFA 11. Combining with both FIFA 11 and FIFA 10 in the final year Ultimate Team mode has created EA more than $ 100 million and the company expects FIFA 12 on its own to eventually create $ 100 million in digital revenue.

The boasting over Ultimate Team’s achievement is nevertheless somewhat awkward considering how significantly it has been in the news due to the association with account thievery more than the final 4 months or so. Each EA Sports and Microsoft will definitely have to close the loophole that produced FIFA such an appealing source of generating money for those who obtain access to the accounts of others.

The cover tournaments and voting campaigns have been a huge achievement for EA Sports. It gets the game in the news escalating awareness more than a much bigger span of time than a basic cover announcement whilst engaging fans at an early date.

For Madden NFL 13 the cover tournament is becoming blown up even larger. 64 players will be eligible – two players from every team will face off in the entry round with the winner moving on to fill out the bracket of 32. The announcement of what players are eligible will come on March 7th.

What players do you hope are included from your preferred team? Leave your thoughts in the comments on who you’d like to see involved and who will be the favorites in the tournament!

After a 4 month void of new sports game releases – it’s challenging to believe it has been that long – February basically kicks off the 2012 season with a trio of offerings. The 14th brings UFC Undisputed three immediately after almost a two year gap in the series as nicely as EA Sports’ Grand Slam Tennis two (their first tennis title on 360/PS3) although the reboot of the popular SSX series arrives on the 28th. Vote in the poll on which game or games you are searching forward to and plan to buy and leave any thoughts in the comments!

The battle against employed games sales rages on as the most recent entry in EA Sports’ well-liked snowboarding franchise has unsurprisingly been confirmed to feature an online pass.

In a video posted by Giant Bomb detailing SSX, you can see the choice to “Get On-line Pass” in the menu. For your convenience, we’ve included a picture beneath of the menu so that you do not have to go fishing via the video to discover it yourself.

There is no word however on exactly what will be tied to the on-line pass, but probabilities are some – if not all – of the game’s on the internet content will be locked for those who obtain the game utilized.

On-line passes are developing in recognition amongst game publishers, specially Electronic Arts. In addition to the SSX announcement, you could recall that just a handful of days ago word broke that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will also feature an on-line pass that is tied to a whopping seven quests.

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Taking into consideration the failure of FIFA Street 3 in 2008 and the rapidly degrading perception of arcade-style games as viable merchandise below the present market circumstances and due to league license imposed restrictions it was initially a surprise that the return of FIFA Street would be a full $ 60 retail release. As the feature reveals are produced although it is clear that EA Sports is putting resources into the game that could potentially give it the needed value although reaching a level of quality that would justify a purchase.

The firm has now announced a feature recognized as the “Street Network” which acts as its personal social network of sorts. It will provide the ability to capture and share highlight videos as well as track and compare progress with close friends in Globe Tour story mode and On the internet Seasons.

While FIFA Street still looks to be a tough sell on the surface with how productive the sim FIFA franchise has been in the past 4 years it may now have an opportunity to capitalize on all the reputation. It seems like a danger in domestic terms, given it wasn’t till lately that FIFA gained severe traction, but overseas it could flourish particularly given the far more authentic method being taken.

In a current preview ESPN broke down the implementation of Kinect for Xbox 360 in the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 and EA Sports has also rolled out a trailer of the features in action. For the initial time a sim title will completely use the motion-device both in capturing the swings as properly as taking advantage of voice capabilities.

Interestingly swings will take place parallel to the Tv screen/Kinect placement rather than facing it with the side of the physique – that will allow for the camera to capture the whole body and motion and apparently will translate with a much a lot more correct on-screen representation.

As far as voice commands it’ll be a lot like what I wrote about coming out of trying the functionality in Kinect Sports: Season Two. Voice can be utilized to make on-screen selections such as club modifications, camera setup, or to ask for caddy recommendations. 

EA Sports has announced there will be no weblog released at halftime of this year’s Super Bowl for Madden NFL 13. For the prior 3 years the organization has taken the chance to announce some base attributes or clarify the general direction of the upcoming title at that time. Typically the blogs have been directed to the much more hardcore crowd that would truly be paying attention to Madden news in February, and although they didn’t quantity to “big” news that advertising definitely wanted to hold for later, they had been nonetheless of worth especially given they created Madden the only sports game to release any sort of information that early. 

Portion of the decision to scrap an early blog could be associated to the inability to materialize a single of the two capabilities announced at that time final year. “Tuner” updates getting added to Madden NFL 12 had been touted as getting a substantial development – but were by no means spoken of once more and the organization has refused to comment on what happened to that feature.

A lot more likely even though it has to do with the new development team composition and leadership. The guys who truly pushed for community engagement and early information, like the unprecedented Super Bowl blog, are now gone. The new regime has taken more than. Post-release assistance in the way of patches for Madden 12 is apparently full after just the one particular feedback-based patch and presumably for the identical cause – dev team focus has turned to Madden NFL 13.

It is disappointing news but not necessarily a poor sign for what’s to come just a change in the way items are getting handled. For a distinct angle of insight into the Madden NFL development approach check out this write-up from Grantland that went out earlier this week.