The NFL has announced its sponsor ship deal with Microsoft, having the Xbox 360 as its official video game console. Ultimately, the main goal of this partnership is to supplement the NFL’s current Play 60 campaign, which recommends kids go out for once (an hour daily) and get out of their seats.
The use of Kinect functionality has the community asking questions; to what extent will exercise be made available through the game? Or better yet, how much will it cost the game, if at all? These will be answered in the near future, when the NFL decides on who will be developing the game.
This sounds like a great idea on paper, but it seems to be counter-intuitive at the same time. Isn’t the main goal of playing sports is playing with teammates across the gridiron instead of a television screen? The game will effectively supplement the campaign in this sense, but may have negative consequences from eliminating that team based aspect.
Also, this could have overarching effects over the Madden NFL series, which under EA is offered to just about every single console under the sun. Despite it being an unwise decision for marketing, this agreement could force EA to restrict its Madden NFL releases specifically for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console only. This practical deal appears to have implications beyond simply getting kids to go out and exercise these days.
Rian Quenlin
I am making an intense effort to not snark at a sports game and Call of Duty in the same breath.