A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy and sport management. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out!!, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been popular throughout the history of video games and is competitive, just like real-world sports. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, and are updated annually to reflect real-world changes. The sports genre is one of the oldest genres in gaming history.
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements. It soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as EA Sports FC, PGA Tour, NHL, NBA Live, and Madden NFL.
NBA Live was a series of basketball video games published by EA Sports. The series, which debuted in 1994, is the successor to the previous NBA Playoffs and NBA Showdown series.
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs is a basketball video game developed and released by Electronic Arts. It was first released in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. The game was highly successful; it was the first game endorsed by the NBA and was the first to contain multiple NBA stars and teams in one game. The game's title alludes to the 1980s rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. It is the first game in the NBA Playoffs series of games.
NBA Live 2000 is the 2000 installment of the NBA Live video game series. The cover features Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. The game was developed by EA Sports and released in 1999. Don Poier is the play-by-play announcer with Reggie Theus on color commentary. The game features Michael Jordan in his first official appearance in the series. The PC version of the game introduced EA's "Face in the Game" feature, allowing players to use custom facial photographs on created players. It was also the final NBA Live game released for Nintendo 64. NBA Live 2000 is followed by NBA Live 2001. A cancelled Game Boy Color version was in development by Handheld Games for THQ, but it was scrapped during testing.
NBA Live 99 is the fifth installment of the NBA Live video games series. The cover features Antoine Walker of the Boston Celtics. The game was developed by EA Sports and released on November 4, 1998, for the Nintendo 64, and then on November 10, 1998, for the Windows and PlayStation. Don Poier is the play-by-play announcer. It was the first NBA Live game released for Nintendo 64. NBA Live 99 was followed by NBA Live 2000.
NBA Street V3 is a basketball video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It is the third installment in the NBA Street series, Originally released in February 2005 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox consoles. It also received a port to the PlayStation Portable under the name NBA Street Showdown. Baron Davis of the New Orleans Hornets is featured on the cover of the game.
Lawrence Dean Oliver is an American statistician and assistant coach for the NBA's Washington Wizards. Oliver is a prominent contributor to the advanced statistical evaluation of basketball. He is the author of Basketball on Paper, the former producer of the defunct Journal of Basketball Studies. More recently, Oliver has served in front office roles with the Sacramento Kings, Seattle SuperSonics and Denver Nuggets of the NBA. In October 2015 Dean Oliver joined TruMedia Networks as Vice President of Data Science. TruMedia Networks is an engineering firm specializing in sports analytics solutions for leagues, franchises and media partners, and says of Oliver in a press release announcing Dean Oliver's hiring, "Oliver was most recently in the front office of the Sacramento Kings and is considered one of the best minds in the world of sports analytics."
Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs, later released in Japan as NBA Pro Basketball: Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA Playoffs, is a 1993 basketball video game produced by Don Traeger and developed by Electronic Arts and released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A later Mega Drive version was released under the title Bulls versus Blazers and the NBA Playoffs, later released in Japan as NBA Playoffs: Bulls vs Blazers.
NBA Showdown is a 1993 video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game console. The game is a sequel to Bulls vs. Blazers video game. The same title was re-released for the Mega Drive/Genesis as NBA Showdown '94. It is the fifth and final game in the NBA Playoffs series of games, before the series was re-branded as NBA Live.
NBA Live 95 is the follow-up to NBA Showdown and the first NBA Live title in the NBA Live video games series from EA Sports. It was published by EA Sports and released in October 1994. The cover features an action shot from the 1994 NBA Finals.
NBA Live 97 is the third installment of the NBA Live video games series. The cover features Mitch Richmond of the Sacramento Kings. The game was developed by EA Sports and released in 1996. The MS-DOS, Sega Saturn and PlayStation versions featured polygonal models for the on-court players, thus marking it as the first 3D EA Sports Basketball sequel for the series. It was also the first NBA Live released for the Sega Saturn. The game received mostly positive reviews for its advanced graphics and wide array of available moves and plays, though the Saturn conversion was reviled for numerous technical deficiencies. NBA Live 97 is followed by NBA Live 98.
Computer-aided sports scouting is the use of data analysis by computer to assist sports scouts to identify and recruit new talented players. Pioneers like Bill James began to analyze the data and apply mathematical principals and new non-conventional formulas to predict success and failures of a baseball player or team, a development called sabermetrics. The foundation of computer-aided scouting is statistics.
NCAA Basketball is a series of college basketball video games that was published by EA Sports from 1998 until 2009. After EA Sports' rival publisher 2K Sports cancelled its own college basketball game, College Hoops, in 2008, EA changed the name of the series from NCAA March Madness to NCAA College Basketball. The series was discontinued on February 10, 2010.
The EA Sports Ignite game engine is a collection of video game technologies built by Electronic Arts and designed to make video game sports "alive". The technology was announced at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal event in May 2013 for three EA Sports franchise games for Xbox One and PlayStation 4: FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25 and NBA Live 14, all released in Fall 2013.
BBTV is a Canadian media and technology company founded by CEO Shahrzad Rafati in 2005. In 2019, the company was the second-largest video property by unique viewers, according to comScore. Its head office is in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. BBTV's clients include the NBA, Paramount Global, and Sony Pictures.
Nils Lahr is an American entrepreneur, inventor and computer scientist known for his work in the streaming media and artificial intelligence industries. He founded Synergy Sports Technology and several other companies. He has also been a senior developer, partner and CTO of the Live AI division at Microsoft. He co-founded Orions Systems, a company known for its AI vision systems, which was later acquired by Microsoft to enhance the capabilities of Dynamics 365.
NBA Live 16 is a basketball simulation video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports released for the PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on September 29, 2015, in North America, simultaneously with 2K Sports' NBA 2K16, and on October 1, 2015, worldwide. The 20th installment of NBA Live, its cover athlete is Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. EA did not release a new installment in the series the following year, instead resuming in 2017 with NBA Live 18. A mobile version of NBA Live 16 released in-between, beating NBA 2K to the mobile market.
SportVU is a camera system that collects data 25 times per second. Its aim is to follow the ball and all players on court. SportVU provides statistics such as real-time player and ball positioning through software and statistical algorithms. Through this data, STATS presents performance metrics for players and teams to use.
Zachary Curtis Lowe is an American sportswriter, journalist, and podcaster. After starting his journalistic career covering the criminal justice system in his home state of Connecticut, Lowe transitioned to basketball reporting and is today considered one of the premier columnists covering the NBA.
