ABSTRACT
Sports games are a fascinating segment of the video game industry. Built around wildly successful franchises with annual release schedules, versions of the most popular sports games are among the top-selling games every year. The market for console sports games is largely dominated by EA Sports, a subdivision of Electronic Arts, which produces annual versions of FIFA Soccer and the Madden football series. They also make a variety of other sports titles that include NHL hockey, a Tiger Woods-branded golf game, and Fight Night boxing. Although there are competing companies in the genre, most notably 2K Sports, EA currently holds exclusive rights to making video games based on NFL and NCAA football, and FIFA Soccer is the best-selling soccer game in the industry, which makes EA’s games of particular relevance to the discourse of video games.
