NBA Live 07 Publicity Under Way
A big money tourney and a behind-the-scenes special are comin' atcha.
Published: October 12, 2006
Neither Electronic Arts nor their EA Sports offshoot really need to pimp their yearly sporting efforts to make money; just kicking the next version out all but guarantees hundreds of thousands -- if not millions in the case of Madden -- will come banging down the door to get their hands on it. But, in a nice parallel to Coke spending as much as it does to keep ahead of Pepsi, EA still feels the need to showcase their goods.
In particular NBA Live 07 will be going the way of the aforementioned Madden titles and has earned itself a nationwide tournament dubbed the NBA Live Challenge. Though it's a cleverly disguised way to show off the game to a huge crowd all over the country, there's also an undeniable hook for the 128 people per stop that actually get to play the game (and sadly, it's only on Xbox hardware this year): the finalists will compete during the NBA All-Star Weekend and the winner takes home $50,000. Sure, that's paltry compared to the Madden Challenge, but the NBA Live isn't consistently the best-selling game every year there isn't something like a Grand Theft Auto released.
Registration can either be completed at this web site or at walk-up positions filled at each city's competition area. Eight times, the pool of 128 contestants will be whittled down to just one, and then the eight finalists will be flown by EA to Vegas next February to duke it out for the big green. Curious if the tour will stop in your city? We can help you out there:
10.13 | Jersey Garden City Mall | Elizabeth, NJ
10.20 | King of Prussia Mall | King of Prussia, PA
10.27 | Concord Mills Mall | Concord, NC
11.3 | Galleria Mall | Houston, TX
11.17 | Hollywood & Highland | West Hollywood, LA
12.1 | Great Lakes Crossing | Auburn hills, MI
12.6 | Target Center | Minneapolis, MN
12.8 | Navy Pier | Chicago, IL
It's not nearly as all encompassing as EA's other big tour, the Northwest and even Northern Cali are left off the tour, but then this is first year, and EA probably wants to make sure the whole thing is a success. Plus, as we've said before, NBA Live isn't the cash cow Madden is.
Not that EA doesn't want to change that. They've hooked up with MTV2 to produce a half-hour special that airs just after the start of the Live Challenge. Featuring MTV2 host ERBO and cover man Dwayne Wade getting scanned into the game, a little proselytizing by Tracy McGrady and other NBA stars, and footage of the motion capture sessions that went into making the game this year and a little behind-the-scenes peek at the development are all on deck. The special, In The Paint: NBA Live 07, airs this Sunday the 15th at 2PM Eastern/Pacific on MTV2.
It remains to be seen how effective both the special and the Challenge tour end up being, but if it goes over well enough (particularly the latter), we could be witnessing the beginnings of yet another EA-sponsored big pay-out nationwide competition. We'll update you once we hear more.
In particular NBA Live 07 will be going the way of the aforementioned Madden titles and has earned itself a nationwide tournament dubbed the NBA Live Challenge. Though it's a cleverly disguised way to show off the game to a huge crowd all over the country, there's also an undeniable hook for the 128 people per stop that actually get to play the game (and sadly, it's only on Xbox hardware this year): the finalists will compete during the NBA All-Star Weekend and the winner takes home $50,000. Sure, that's paltry compared to the Madden Challenge, but the NBA Live isn't consistently the best-selling game every year there isn't something like a Grand Theft Auto released.
Registration can either be completed at this web site or at walk-up positions filled at each city's competition area. Eight times, the pool of 128 contestants will be whittled down to just one, and then the eight finalists will be flown by EA to Vegas next February to duke it out for the big green. Curious if the tour will stop in your city? We can help you out there:
10.13 | Jersey Garden City Mall | Elizabeth, NJ
10.20 | King of Prussia Mall | King of Prussia, PA
10.27 | Concord Mills Mall | Concord, NC
11.3 | Galleria Mall | Houston, TX
11.17 | Hollywood & Highland | West Hollywood, LA
12.1 | Great Lakes Crossing | Auburn hills, MI
12.6 | Target Center | Minneapolis, MN
12.8 | Navy Pier | Chicago, IL
It's not nearly as all encompassing as EA's other big tour, the Northwest and even Northern Cali are left off the tour, but then this is first year, and EA probably wants to make sure the whole thing is a success. Plus, as we've said before, NBA Live isn't the cash cow Madden is.
Not that EA doesn't want to change that. They've hooked up with MTV2 to produce a half-hour special that airs just after the start of the Live Challenge. Featuring MTV2 host ERBO and cover man Dwayne Wade getting scanned into the game, a little proselytizing by Tracy McGrady and other NBA stars, and footage of the motion capture sessions that went into making the game this year and a little behind-the-scenes peek at the development are all on deck. The special, In The Paint: NBA Live 07, airs this Sunday the 15th at 2PM Eastern/Pacific on MTV2.
It remains to be seen how effective both the special and the Challenge tour end up being, but if it goes over well enough (particularly the latter), we could be witnessing the beginnings of yet another EA-sponsored big pay-out nationwide competition. We'll update you once we hear more.