EA Sports and Planned Obsolescence - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 98

to make each annual version of a game feel like a must buy. Understanding
how wordplay applies to franchise sports titles starts by exploring at the
dynamics of EA Sports itself, with a particular focus on their two biggest
franchises, FIFA Soccer and Madden football.
EA SPORTS: GAMING JUGGERNAUT
EA Sports is a sub-label of gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) that focuses
on producing games based on real-world sports. Their titles typically
attempt to provide a 'simulation-style' experience that replicates what one
would fi nd in the real-world versions of the activities, 1 although they pro-
duce a handful of arcade- style 2 titles like NBA JAM . EA Sports games are
typically among EA's biggest sellers, with titles like FIFA Soccer 11 selling
almost twice as many copies as any other game released by the label in the
2010 fi scal year, and Madden NFL 11 also placing within EA's fi ve most
successful games in that time period. 3 Four key elements help defi ne what
make EA Sports notable: a focus on simulation and replication of the sports
on which the games are based, a transition toward online play, the target
audience for the game, and the cultural impact of their leading titles.
T he bias toward simulation in E A Sports games is most readily evidenced
by their marketing campaigns. The original company slogan “If it's in the
game, it's in the game” was later shortened to the assumptive declaration
that “It's in the game.” Both slogans stress how 'real' EA Sports titles seek
to be. This appeal to fi delity is backed by the numerous, often exclusive,
licenses EA Sports pursues with sports leagues and player's associations,
which allow the company to include famous sports teams and notable play-
ers in their games. Their FIFA Soccer franchise was the fi rst to be licensed
by the soccer federation, and their NFL and NCAA football franchises
have benefi ted from long-term exclusive deals. These exclusive contracts
shut out any competition seeking to make a game that integrates real-world
players and teams. This approach has hurt them in some cases, as competi-
tor 2KSports obtained an exclusive license to Major League Baseball, but
the attempt to provide an accurate simulation of the real is at the center of
how EA Sports seeks to shape its products. The height of this focus on sim-
ulation is embodied in the romantic retelling of the discussions surround-
ing the original version of Madden Football , where famous NFL coach
and the game's licensed namesake, John Madden, insisted that any game
bearing his name must feature 11 versus 11 football, rather than the 3 v 3
used by competitors or the 7 v 7 pitched by the game's programmers. This
approach is continued throughout the history of Madden , as Madden NFL
12 integrated a new handling of player concussions in both graphics and in-
game commentary to better represent contemporary debates in the football
league upon which the game is based. 4 In developing a connection between
reality and sports games, EA established a key dynamic of the discourse.