EA To Launch Children’s Sports Equipment Line

Electronic Arts will market a new line of children’s sports equipment under the EA Sports label. The products will not interact with any planned EA Sports titles, and are intended to be separate from the company’s main game business. No details of specific products are available yet, but the line will feature products for baseball, football, basketball, soccer and hockey. These will include interactive training tools featuring voice commands and “instructional coaching elements”. Other products will include a “game-in-a-box” containing all the equipment needed to play a particular sport. Other accessories will cheer users on when they use proper techniques. Finally, a basic line of high density-foam balls will be launched for younger children. Different products will be aimed at ages three to six, six to nine, and nine to 12. The equipment will be created by manufacturing company Toy Island, with which EA has signed a multi-year agreement. The line will also use EA’s existing relationship with sports marketing and licensing agency IMG -– a partnership it formed more than a year ago but has not yet utilized in any product. Shedding further light on the plans in his blog, EA Sports president Peter Moore commented: "Any of us who are parents know that many of the sports activities that get our kids excited these days have evolved from what we may have done at that same age (more than a few years ago!)." "I think kids these days want something that's an extension of how they consume sports through our games -- which means using the latest technology to make going outside to play sports even more fun than it is today," he added. "I think our opportunity is to continue to change the way people play, see and interact with sports. That's something EA Sports can deliver in a way that I think is unique from any other sports brand."