EA's E3 Press Conference Impresses

Though the doors to the LA Convention Center don't open until tomorrow, today was filled with early E3 goodness as press conferences from first-party manufacturers and leading publishers, including Electronic Arts, were attended by gamers that have descended into the city.  EA proudly introduced ten titles that will be featured this week and among them, EA SPORTS grabbed the attention of sports gamers as President Peter Moore introduced EA SPORTS Active 2, EA SPORTS MMA, and Madden NFL 11.

With yesterday's official unveiling of the XBOX 360's Kinect (formerly known as Natal...I wonder if it'll have a symbol?), EA SPORTS Active 2 naturally becomes the first game out the label to bring the new motion sensing device to our fans.  The on-stage demonstration saw @EASActiveGirl and others sweating it up with new exercises using the new wireless leg and arm straps that include heart-rate monitors (which by the way had KP up at 167 bpm...either that's quite the workout or she was just a tad nervous on stage as well!).  Check out the newest EA SPORTS Active 2 video here.

Here's what fans had to say on Twitter:

@yuki_hime - @EASActiveGirl You were looking good up on that stage. Looking forward to seeing more of EA SPORTS Active 2!
@scbound - I want the EA SPORTS Active 2...definitely something I'd love to get! 

We've known for a while now that coming this fall we'd be diving into mixed martial arts with EA SPORTS MMA.  Today the team from Tiburon announced that two fighters will be on the cover of the game which will officially be released on October 26^th.
Gracing the cover of the first MMA game from EA SPORTS will be the ageless legend Randy Couture along with heavyweight bruiser and world champion Fedor Emelianenko.  Moore talked about different individual fighter styles and how they've been recreated in the game along with how different real-world environments will provide their own flavor making every fight unique.

The biggest news coming out of the game, however, had to be the announcement of EA SPORTS Live Broadcast.  This new feature in EA SPORTS MMA gives gamers the chance to fight in front of fans everywhere and truly experience what it is like to be a professional athlete.  You will be able to upload your personal pre-fight hype video message online and selected fighters will have their fights broadcasted live along with accompanying play-by-play.  It's a pretty ambitious endeavor and could most definitely be the start of something bigger and better for all EA SPORTS titles.  Make sure you tune in tomorrow at 3PM PST to see the first EA SPORTS MMA Live Broadcast!

@brianjyriel - EA MMA is lookin' awesome! Especially EA SPORTS Live Broadcast!
@TheCodySchulman - Sounds like the most badass MMA game ever!

Finally, Moore unveiled some of the new features to Madden NFL 11 including an all new way for gamers to call their plays and online co-op.  What better person to enter stage-left than 4-time Super Bowl Champion and Hall of Famer Joe Montana.  They broke down what coaches and QB's do during play-calling and how the card the coach holds contains plays divided up by situation.  For example, there are specific plays the coach would call in a 1^st and 10 down in your own half vs a 3^rd and 4 inside the red zone.  By the sounds of it, plays will be available in the menu based on down and distance which should make it a little easier to get the right play at the right time. I'm pretty sure during Joe's time they didn't have mics inside player's helmets providing coaching advice on the fly, though it is a cool new feature in the upcoming Madden. Check out the new features here:  PS3 Features / XBOX 360 Features

@Lirodon - Madden NFL 11 looks quite awesome!
@jcallahan - Madden NFL 11 looks to easily be the slickest, most accessible, and all around best Football game ever. Oh and the cover is awesome.

During the press conference, we also pushed out a bunch of new content including the first NHL 11 trailer, NCAA Football 11 blog and video to go with today's demo release, and more videos from Peter Moore on his thoughts on EA SPORTS MMA, Madden NFL 11, and NCAA Football 11 at E3 this week.­­­


All this and we haven't even gotten inside the conference center yet!  For the lucky fans that are at E3 tomorrow, make sure you head over to the EA stage at 3:00PM PST where Peter Moore will be hosting the EA SPORTS Show and talking with producers and special guests.  On tap for discussion will be NBA JAM, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 on the Sony Move, NHL Slapshot, and EA SPORTS MMA.  I'll be there a little bit before the start to give away a bunch of swag so follow me on Twitter and during the show we'll be giving away a couple of Dwight Howard autographed copies of Nintendo Power along with some tickets to Wednesday night's Strikeforce event. 

Tomorrow plans to be quite the opening day of E3 and I couldn't be more excited to be in Los Angeles for this year's event.  Look out for tweetphotos, quick stories, and swag giveaways live and on twitter from the EA SPORTS Community team throughout the week.