EA Sports - Series and Games

Series and Games

Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. Nevertheless, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it is not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98 (as EA has the license for the FIFA World Cup and the European Football Championship, each happening regularly in four-year intervals), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively.

• FIFA series, 1993 (EA Sports also released several other games, most notably the games with World Cup, UEFA European Championships and UEFA Champions League licenses)
• Madden NFL series, 1988–Present (games prior to 1993 did not have an NFL license)
• NCAA Football series, 1993 (prior to 1996 the name of the franchise was Bill Walsh College Football and College Football USA)
• EA Sports GameShow, 2008 EA Sports GameShow is a nationwide, online trivia game hosted by a live, on-air DJ.
• NBA Live series, 1995–2010/2012, preceded by The NBA Playoffs (1989–1993), NBA Showdown (1994), and NBA Elite (2011). Starting with NBA Live 08, the games have included FIBA-sanctioned national teams as well. Since the rebrand as "NBA Elite" in 2010, NBA Elite 11 was cancelled for consoles due to a large amount of criticism following the game's glitch-filled demo, with EA citing "concerns about gameplay polish". An iOS version of Elite 11 was released, however. The Live series is being renewed by Tiburon with NBA Live 13.
• NCAA Basketball series, (2008–2010), preceded by the NCAA March Madness series (1995–2007)
• MVP Baseball series and MVP NCAA Baseball series, 2003, preceded by the Triple Play series (1996–2002)
• NHL series, 1991

Three Elitserien titles were also released in Sweden

Three SM-liiga titles were released in Finland

A Japanese version called NHL Pro Hockey '94 was released on the Super Famicom

• PGA Tour series, 1990, renamed to Tiger Woods PGA Tour in 1999
• NASCAR series, exclusive license from 2003–2010, canceled due to license expiration after release of NASCAR Kart Racing.
• Knockout Kings (boxing), which was composed of five titles (between 1998 and 2002) and then discontinued when Fight Night 2004 was released. In the past, Toughman Contest was also released.
• FIFA Manager, 2006

Preceded by FIFA Soccer Manager (1996), the Premier League Manager series (2001) and the Total Club Manager series (2004).

• AFL series (Australian Football League, Australian Rules Football)

Started at AFL Finals Fever on the PC which went on to AFL 98 and AFL 99 all on PlayStation as well as PC.

• Rugby (rugby union) series

Started at Rugby World Cup 1995 on Sega Mega Drive which went on to Rugby (A late version of Rugby World Cup 1999, PC only), Rugby (2002), Rugby 2004, Rugby 2005, Rugby 06 and Rugby 08 all on PlayStation 2 and Xbox as well as PC

• Rugby League series

Australian Rugby League was released on Sega Genesis as the player goes through the 1995 ARL season and the other ARL 96 was on PC depicting the 1996 ARL season.

• Arena Football

First version released in February 2006

• Cricket Series

Started out with Cricket 96; Its sequel was Cricket 97 which was complemented with Cricket 97 Ashes Tour Edition. Following releases include Cricket Ashes Tour, Cricket World Cup 99 and Cricket 2000. From then onwards, the series was a biennial one, with the releases of Cricket 2002 and 2004. It returned to being an annual release with the releases of Cricket 2005 and Cricket 07. EA has not worked on any Cricket games since the release of Cricket 07.

• Fight Night Series

Follows your career either as a boxer of your creation, or as a legend.

• There are other series, including F1 Championship (discontinued after Sony acquired the exclusive license for the Formula One championship), Superbike and others with a limited distribution such as AFL
• Grand Slam Tennis: which was released for the Wii in June 2009
• EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer: an exercise game which was released for the Wii in March 2009
• SSX SSX is also known as Snowboard Supercross and the first game of the series was released the 6th October 2000.4 games of the series were released to PS2 except from SSX Blur that was released only for the Wii. SSX (2012) was released on Xbox 360 & PS3
• UFC: On June 5, 2012, EA bought the rights to the UFC video game franchise from THQ.