Moore outlines EA Sports plan

Newly installed EA Sports boss Peter Moore reckons that the publisher needs to start using social networking ideas, among other things, to compete for the "hearts and minds" of a wider sports audience.

"That could mean broadcast sports, sports camps, the ability to license consumer products around the EA Sports brand," Moore told the New York Times last week. "That means technology that brings sports to life for coaches, players and television viewers, and it means services online for sports fans to connect with one another."

Moore, who was a big proponent of Xbox Live during his time at Microsoft, also hinted that one of the first initiatives in this area - an online sports trivia game for PC called EA Sports GameShow - could appear on the 360 online service, along with PlayStation Network, if it proved successful.

On the whole though, he's looking at providing sports fans with services, complaining that he shouldn't have to go to a dozen different websites like Yahoo and ESPN to catch up. "I think we have an opportunity to aggregate information and bring it to life with video technologies," he explained.

EA Sports already has some form in this regard, having introduced various network services to FIFA, for instance. In recent versions of that game, EA has introduced community aspects like regular podcasts, news streams, and Interactive Leagues that use community-wide results to dictate league positions for players' preferred sides. Future titles aim to introduce full 11-versus-11 gameplay.