Love him or hate him, it can't be denied that Kobe Bryant is one of the best players ever to pick up a basketball. As KB24 eyes his fourth championship ring and taking Game 1 of this year's Finals with a convincing 40-point performance and a game-high 8 assists, the superstar will be on the cover of 2K Sports' NBA 2K10.

Peter Moore definitely has some ambitious plans in store for EA Sports. With all the new changes he's implemented ever since he took over EA's sports division last July, he mentions that he plans to make EA Sports a visible brand in the sports industry itself someday. You can find out how he plans to go about doing this by reading the details in the full article.

You can't spell Disney without family entertainment. In an interview conducted by GamesIndustry.biz, Thierry Braille, Disney's vice president, talks about how Disney wants to concentrate on total family entertainment through video games.

Although Disney does not want to abandon their other, more mature markets, with Turok (PS3, Xbox 360) published under the Touchstone label and their other sports games under ESPN, Braille stresses that uniting families in a single activity can turn video games into a force for good. This would definitely put video games into a better light considering the flak they've been taking lately.

Braille had this to say regarding the matter:

We have titles that are for a younger audience, but there are more titles, such as High School Musical that could gather the family, after the Sunday lunch maybe, and we can imagine them singing together. This is Disney – this inclusive way to bring the family together and have fun.

He also commended the efforts Nintendo platforms have been making in forcing publishers into creating games "of the highest quality" for the gaming industry. Leave it to Disney to always put things into a more wholesome and morally upright point of view.

Tomorrow may be a big moment on the history of gaming as broadcast giant CBS formally becomes the first network of its class to show a video game tournament as a regular sporting event like other athletic spectacles such as the Masters and March Madness.

"There are an enormous amount of people of all ages who play video games these days, so we’re going to try to see if video games’ popularity can translate into a viable television audience," says CBS Sports Vice-President Rob Correa as he explores the possibility of people looking at this moment as a poignant event after a decade or so.

The tournament concerned is the World Series of Video Games which will be held in Louisville, Kentucky. Edited footage from the event will show highlights of face-offs between players in games such as Fight Night Round 3, Guitar Hero and other non-violent titles. First-person shootouts in Halo and Quake will sadly not make it on air because of the nature of the content.

The idea of the tournament and the coverage by CBS is pegged on the South Korean model which has an entire nation embracing gaming and making it a part of pop culture. A full-time coverage in the manner that ESPN covers sports isn't possible for video games just yet but for now, this is the biggest step game broadcasting can take in the US.

The CBS coverage is also a pilot test of sorts on how game programming in cable TV initiated by G4 and Gameplay HD can work in a bigger scale. The response of viewers will determine future plans on the coverage of electronic gaming as a sport on the network.

The next NASCAR season is going to be quite remarkable for Wii fans. For the first time, Nintendo is sponsoring a car at the said event. The car itself, the number 16 Ford Fusion, will be sporting a Wii theme.

The man behind the wheels will be Greg Biffle. If you're not particularly a big fan of racing or NASCAR, you don't have to worry if your "Wii car" has a good chance of winning because Biffle is one of the more experienced drivers out there.

He has been racing at the event for more than a decade now and has already won several trophies. The last one was the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Wii-themed Ford Fusion, furthermore, has already been tested during the race that took place at the Chicagoland Speedway from July 13 to 15.

If you want to see it for yourself, take a look at this schedule:

• August 12: Watkins Glen International in New York
• Aug. 17 to 19: Michigan International Speedway
• Aug. 31 to September 2: California Speedway, Fontana, CA
• September 21 to 23: Dover International Speedway, Delaware (be sure to check out the Wii-themed race car at Sunday's race!)
• October 12 to 14: Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Carolina

The August 12 event as well as the one on September 21 to 23 will be aired on ESPN at 1 p.m. EST and ABC at 1 p.m. EST respectively.

 

Although it's not confirmed by Take-Two Interactive if the restructuring operations being conducted ushered the timely departure of Erik Whiteford, VP of marketing at 2K Sports, it has been learned that the 14-year industry veteran will be leaving the company to join consultancy firm Odyssey Partners.

For two years, Whiteford has contributed to building the 2K Sports brand since joining the division back in May 2005. He oversaw the transition of 2K Games from its former label, ESPN Videogames, and was deemed responsible for the success of the NHL 2K, NBA 2K, MLB 2K and College Hoops 2K franchises, even while matched up against major competition.

Immensely ironic as it is, Whiteford worked at Electronic Arts for 12 years prior to joining Take-Two's sports games division. His position as Senior Director of the EA Sports brand kept the label at a unstoppable lead during the EA Sports legacy. He helped spark the launch of the EA Sports Nation online community while overseeing management, research and online marketing.

Soon, players of Madden NFL do not have to quit their game to know what's happening in real-life football.

Thanks to a deal between ESPN, Electronic Arts Inc. and The Weather Channel, football console games are going to be infused with real-life events. Imagine this: If you're playing a Madden game in Pittsburgh Steeler's Heinz Field home stadium, it will be automatically set to rain if it's actually raining over there in that part of Pittsburgh. Or how about this one: if a player is currently suffering an injury, his video game counterpart will be incapacitated from playing as well.

Aaron LaBerge, senior vice president of technology and product development for ESPN better explains this new feature: "So if a guy in the real world twists his ankle, you can't use him in the game until he gets back." Hmm, interesting.

Of course, fans of sports games are exhilarated, knowing that this new functionality is also applied in actual player statistics, which means you don't have to stop playing just to check on how your favorite quarterback is doing. More importantly though, this move should somehow quiet the issue about manipulation or miscomputations of stats in video game sports.

This new feature will be included with Madden NFL '08, scheduled to be out this August for Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 platforms. As  for the moment, there are no specific news whether this will be implemented in other Electronic Arts sports games. As always, we will be keeping you updated, so stay tuned!

Electronic Arts has been mentioned as one of two major publishers that are seriously trying to develop great games for the Wii, as opposed to simply shipping degraded ports. So it would probably come as no surprise that this third-party publisher for Nintendo's new-gen console would be giving what Wii gamers have been asking for: serious online gameplay.

 

It appears that EA Sports has geared up their next titles in the FIFA and Madden NFL series for online multiplayer, Wi-Fi gaming. And if you're skeptical about how matchmaking is going to turn out, Electronic Arts is already turning down the Friend Code implementation, offering their own solution of matching you with a random online opponent.

Details are pretty sketchy, but as a certified legit report by Rumor Reporter points out, EA has set up a slew of features for the upcoming online romp in Madden NFL 08, including exhibition match-ups, real-time leaderboards, online lobby with built-in EA instant messaging, an "EA Locker" and "My Profile" feature, ESPN ticker updates for dynamic content, downloadable content which includes future roster updates, and 22 mini-games that will reflect upon your Mii's party mode rating.

For the FIFA 08 on the Wii, gamers will be able to connect to other gamers worldwide using a similar matchmaking system, "up-to-the-moment" roster updates, and a Virtual League mode that will be the main venue for online tournaments.

Still skeptical? Well, Bruce of Rumor Reporter says this information will be revealed in the July 2007 issue of Nintendo Power. And we forgot to mention that this news is also starting to buzz around the Web's Nintendo-friendly forums. If EA gets FIFA 08 complete with online play, consider this blogger a Wii-head for the next years to come. Period.

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) head Hal Halpin has responded to the claims of Save the Children foundation and their study by labeling it as mere "pseudo research" while adding that the study never mentioned the role of parents and teachers in the creation of socially awkward children.

Halpin also noted that "this is another example of real world anecdotal evidence consistently flying in the face of pseudo-research." He claims that his own son plays DS with his cousins in as much as his daughter plays hopscotch. However both children, he noted, were interacting like normal kids.

He also surmised that "perhaps the parent and the teacher -- has failed the child," noting that blame shouldn't be put solely on modern forms of media. Also according to him, children playing video games is no different to adults who read the paper or watch ESPN  - they're just doing it for relaxation.

Halpin's conclusions further target our current society's negligent parents claiming that "pointing fingers and laying blame elsewhere makes some adults feel better, but it just isn't reality."

I don't know about you guys, but I've personally gotten tired of hearing how video games ruin lives. I seriously don't think Hitler got hold of Manhunt or GTA when he was young, and look at the havoc he wrought upon the human race during his time.

This is probably borderline gaming news to you folks out there, but anything attached to STAR Sports Asia's Drinie Aguilar is way too good to pass up by our standards. "GAME" is a thirty-minute dive into the world of gaming, from consoles to computers and handhelds, and thanks to Electronic Arts and ESPN's STAR Sports, this show is specially catered to the Asian and Pacific Rim regions.

You've probably already caught a few previews of the show on STAR Sports Asia, as it has already debuted since April 18, 2007. But as announced in the official press release, ESPN has also expanded its reach to as far as STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan and ESPN for the Pacific Rim (yes, that means you Aussies and Kiwis).

Starring the sassy and equally bubbly Drinie Aguilar of STAR Sports' fame, "GAME" will be tackling the latest and hottest news and trends in the world of gaming, including extensive game reviews, news event reports from all over the world and sneak-peek previews of incoming titles for your favorite gaming platform.

But tagging along with the entire theme of the sports channel, the show will also bring in the world of sports and the world of gaming together, sporting the most popular and famous athletes and their take on gaming. Always wanted to know what games your favorite star player is currently sweating over? Aguilar will let you in on the secret.

    

Also some of the biggest events in sports history will be simulated by Electronic Arts' own EA Sports titles in order to give a rough rundown of what could happen at the night of the big game. Jon Niermann, President of EA Asia Publishing, said, "We are very enthused about the launch of this new program. We are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with EA into new markets after our successful collaboration in the US."

Electronic Arts seems to be reaching out to a larger part of the gaming community, by touting its line up of EA Sports titles to the Asia and Pacific region. If you're from one of the seven Pan-Asian regions STAR Sports and ESPN is currently broadcasting to, be sure to catch Drinie Aguilar and her showcase of gaming in your sports channel.