EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as Ron Barr and John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing games such as FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NCAA Football. EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game, but today the motto is just It's in the game. reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. Unlike other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them (FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo throughout 1997; and Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004).

16 bit era

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After establishing with some highly regarded titles from 1987-1992, most notably Earl Weaver Baseball 1987, John Madden Football 1990 and NHL Hockey 1991, EA decided in 1992 to launch a sports-only label and EASN was born. ESPN took note of the similarities, and forced EA to come up with a new label to put their sports label under for the 1994 season. The first run of the 1994 season still donned the EASN brand, with a 'first run' logo on the lower right hand corner of the box (this was also done in 1993), while the rest of the production run was under the name EA Sports. With a new logo (whose design later would be also adopted by EA) and a uniform box design, all white with a live-action photo (NHL95 MegaDrive.jpg), the exception being the Madden games, which featured Madden himself. All boxes would remain this way until 1997, when individual players starred alone, and although the 99 titles featured one unusual dark blue case, the all-white boxes returned next year.

The first titles were released for both Sega's 16-bit console, the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, and Nintendo's SNES (among other platforms, but only regularly for these two). In fact, some attribute the success of Sega's console partly on the strength of the sports catalog provided by EA Sports. On the other hand, the lack of them on the next Sega console, the Saturn is believed to be one of the reasons it failed on the American market.

32 bit era to present

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As the 16-bit era came to a close, and powerful 3D-capable consoles appeared, EA had to reinvent their franchises, and some of the earliest titles failed to live up to their 2D predecessors' reputation. However, in 1998 two games received very positive feedback - FIFA 98: Road to World Cup and NHL 98. Later that year, World Cup 98 broke the bad reputation of "official videogames" by receiving high marks almost unanimously. As fluidity in gameplay caught up with graphics, EA soon had to face another problem: the lack of improvement over previous titles, or as fans dubbed it, "sequelitis". The first years of the 21st Century were problematic, with many fans left wondering about why they should bother with the next release, when few new features are added, gameplay was not improved (it was more action-oriented than some of their newer competitors) and their long-asked requests were not answered.

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@BreeOlson Do the EA Sports Active instead of the Wii Fit, It's rated #1 over Wii Fit :-)
maphoto (Michael Abrams) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:58:36 -0000
@BreeOlson Do the EA Sports Active instead of the Wii Fit, It's rated #1 over Wii Fit :-)
Better fix that @EAMaddenNFL or Ill start the BENGAL FAN boycott of EA Sports!
dklayer (Donnie Klayer) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:54:26 -0000
Better fix that @EAMaddenNFL or Ill start the BENGAL FAN boycott of EA Sports!
Cr8-a-mistress mode added. RT @tblandjr: #Iwonder how will tht nxt Tiger Woods EA Sports vid gm commercial is gonna go? Not thinkn so gr8
CopperSoul (Ifeanyi Okoro) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:50:20 -0000
Cr8-a-mistress mode added. RT @tblandjr: #Iwonder how will tht nxt Tiger Woods EA Sports vid gm commercial is gonna go? Not thinkn so gr8
RT @raczilla: I started a thread about EA SPORTS participation in Community Vibes on the @gamertagradio forums. Come talk to me! http ...
easports (EA SPORTS) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:46:30 -0000
RT @raczilla: I started a thread about EA SPORTS participation in Community Vibes on the @gamertagradio forums. Come talk to me! http ...
I started a thread about EA SPORTS participation in Community Vibes on the @gamertagradio forums. Come talk to me! http://bit.ly/5gBVgf
raczilla (Will Kinsler) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:45:56 -0000
I started a thread about EA SPORTS participation in Community Vibes on the @gamertagradio forums. Come talk to me! http://bit.ly/5gBVgf
Well just got a hell of a workout from EA Sports Active. Sweating balls here.
Snarkasaur (DC Stewart) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:45:23 -0000
Well just got a hell of a workout from EA Sports Active. Sweating balls here.

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