ABSTRACT

Despite the immense coverage aff orded games like Grand Th eft Auto: San Andreas (Ro ckstar Games, 2004) Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studies, 2004) or any number of war games (e.g., the Medal of Honor series)—and their attendant importance wi thin c ultural and p olitical domains-the sp orts gaming industry continues to be the crown jewel of the video games world. In 2005, for example, when much of the industry faced losses in sales, sports games remained strong within the industry, accounting for more than thirty percent of all video games sales. Th at year, Electronic Arts, whose core market remained with virtual sports reality, generated $675 million in revenue during the second quarter alone, and later saw the 2006 version of Madden: NFL-its fl agship title-take less than one month to become the top-selling game for year within North America.2 In total, sports video games represent a $1 billion industry, a fact that demonstrates the economic power and cultural signifi cance of sports video games (Schor, 2005).