The Cintas Center is a 10,250-seat multi-purpose arena and conference center on the campus on Xavier University in Cincinnati , Ohio . The arena officially opened in 2000 and was constructed through private donations as part of Xavier University's Century Campaign. It is home to the Xavier University Musketeers basketball and volleyball teams . It is named for the uniform company Cintas .
62-711: In the spring of 2009, Cintas Center was voted the 3rd "Toughest Place to Play" in a poll conducted by EA Sports . Cintas Center hosted the Atlantic 10 (A10) Women's Basketball Championship in 2007 and 1st & 2nd Round games of the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship. Cintas Center also hosted the A10 Women's Volleyball Championship in 2010 and is a perennial site for OHSAA boys' basketball state tournament games. It has also hosted Cleveland Cavaliers preseason games since 2014. On November 2, 2014, Xavier gave nearby Mount St. Joseph University free use of
124-517: A goal situation for Tomas Sandstrom ( Los Angeles Kings ) against Andy Moog ( Boston Bruins ). NHL 95 featured an in-goal camera during a goal scored by Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers during the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals against Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks. NHL 96 featured New Jersey 's Scott Stevens and Detroit 's Steve Yzerman . More recently, Claude Giroux
186-579: A reward or rewards. Heavy Water, a company dedicated to developing for Home, developed the EA Sports Complex for EA Sports. Originally, the Complex just featured two rooms: the EA Sports Complex and the EA Sports Complex Upstairs. The EA Sports Complex featured racing and had a golfing range that was unavailable to play. The Upstairs had four poker tables that users could play at any time. With
248-575: A sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as EA Sports FC , PGA Tour , NHL , NBA Live , and Madden NFL . Most games under this brand are developed by EA Vancouver , the Electronic Arts studio in Burnaby , British Columbia as well as EA Orlando (formerly Tiburon Studios) in Orlando, Florida . The main rival to EA Sports is 2K Sports . Notably, until 2018, both companies competed over
310-452: A worse player, a player on a losing streak or a player who is down by multiple goals. EA Sports has openly denied the existence of any such mechanism, instead saying that winning is a product of skill and the quality of the team's roster. However, EA once published a document about a feature called "Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment", which was interpreted by some as confirming the existence of ice tilt. EA has not denied this. In fact, they patented
372-502: Is a media room that is used as a work room and for press conferences. The 2014-15 season saw a new design for the basketball floor to include the Cincinnati skyline. The arena saw a multimillion-dollar technology upgrade during the summer of 2010. A new, 10mm centerhung Mitsubishi DiamondVision video board was installed along with 16.5mm LSI/SACO scoring panels, a 360° ring and almost 600' of LED fascia ribbon board. An auxiliary scoreboard
434-586: Is a series of professional ice hockey simulation video games developed by EA Vancouver and published yearly by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports brand. The game is developed under license from the National Hockey League (NHL), which enables the use of the league's team names, arenas and colors in the game, and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), which enables
496-593: Is not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98 , all in the wake of FIFA Soccer Manager in 1997 (as EA has owned the license for the FIFA World Cup , which happens regularly in four-year intervals, since 1998), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively. NHL (video game series) NHL (colloquially referred to as Chel )
558-416: Is the 12,000 sq ft (1,100 m) James & Caroline Duff Banquet Center. EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games . Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements, it soon grew up to become
620-536: Is the Xavier University Men's basketball team. As of March 2019 the Musketeers have compiled a 258–41 (.863) record since moving to its on-campus home for the 2000-01 season. Xavier enjoyed a 15–0 mark at home during the 2009–10, its only perfect record for a season at Cintas Center. During the 2017-2018 season, the Musketeers set a Cintas Center record with 17 home victories. Cintas Center continues to be one of
682-673: The F1 series, therefore reclaiming the rights to publish F1 games. EA acquired Metalhead Software in May 2021, the developers of the Super Mega Baseball series. EA stated that they are looking to taking the core aspects of that series to integrate with licensing from MLB to publish a licensed baseball game again in the future. EA has had deals with FIFA to use the FIFA name and branding for its EA FIFA series, in additional to over 300 separate deals with
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#1733094183506744-528: The Gran Turismo series starting with Gran Turismo 5 , and also Eutechnyx for NASCAR The Game series from 2011 to 2015. On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League (NFL) and its Players' Union for five years. On February 12, 2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the 2012 NFL season . Less than a month after
806-683: The NCAA Football series, the NCAA terminated its license agreement with EA in 2013 due to several factors, including the O'Bannon case as well as issues over comparable licensing fees to the professional sports games. On June 4, 2012, EA signed a "multi-year, multi-product" partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship , taking over from THQ . Following the release of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour in 2015, EA Sports announced that they would end its PGA Tour series after 25 years, with
868-623: The Collegiate Licensing Company , as at the time of the announcement, the NCAA had not yet reached definitive rules on appropriate payment to players for their likeliness. If such rules are established by the time of the game's release, EA said they would then include player likenesses. However, Notre Dame stated that until such rules are in place, they declined to be part of EA's game. At the time of this announcement, EA stated they had no other agreements with other NCAA sports. Later that month, EA purchased Codemasters , developers of
930-537: The New Jersey Devils ) are the cover athletes together, which is for the first time in video game history that three siblings are on a video game cover art together. In NHLPA '93 and NHL '94 , Emmy award-winning sportscaster Ron Barr gives a pre-game scouting report prior to each game. In the Genesis version of NHL 95, KNBR radio sportscaster John Shrader replaced Ron Barr in that duty. Live play-by-play commentary
992-588: The Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 ( FIFA 2005 and Madden NFL 2005 were also the last two PlayStation titles to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as
1054-530: The Stanley Cup together. However, on August 12, 2015, EA announced that Kane would not be appearing on the cover or participating in any promotional activities for the game in light of a criminal investigation he was involved in. Instead, the cover featured Toews alone. At the 2016 NHL Awards, it was announced that Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues was to appear on the cover of NHL 17 . On June 21, 2017, during
1116-528: The 2003 game year, and from years 2006 to 2008, EA published compilations of EA Sports titles for Windows called the EA Sports Collection ; for example, the 2006 lineup was called the EA Sports 06 Collection . In June 2009, EA Sports announced that for 2010, the games Madden NFL , NCAA Football , NASCAR , NHL , NBA Live , and Tiger Woods PGA Tour would not be shipped for PC platforms. The NCAA Football series had not been released on
1178-670: The 2017 NHL Awards, EA announced that Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers would be the cover athlete on NHL 18 . On August 22, 2024, EA announced that Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks would be the Canadian and international cover athlete, and Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils would be the US regional cover athlete on NHL 25 . And on the deluxe edition cover of NHL 25 , all three Hughes brothers (including Luke Hughes of
1240-517: The Black Table from 20,000 to 10,000. The August 27, 2009 update separated the scoreboards for each level of play – Green, Red, and Black – and into Daily boards and Season boards (left side and right side), improved card readability, additional rail seating near the poker tables, player removal on lockup while playing poker, and player buy-in refund on removal (does not refund on Home disconnect) while playing poker. On October 9, 2009, EA Sports released
1302-626: The Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer research and awareness programs. The items are black jerseys with a pink number 9 on the front and the name Brees on the back also in pink. These jerseys were available from October 15, 2009, to November 25, 2009. On November 5, 2009, for those who purchased the Brees Breast Cancer jersey, they received a free DJ kit that is featured in the Club Fight Night space by entering one of
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#17330941835061364-547: The Complex making five rooms for the Complex. This room is the game space for Fight Night Round 4 called "Club Fight Night" featuring a mini-game called Club DJ and coming soon, robot boxing. On July 30, 2009, EA Sports added a Black Poker Table to the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room for the higher level players. In time, there will be a room dedicated for this table just like the Green Poker Room and
1426-903: The Complex; the EA Sports Racing Complex, the EA Sports Golf Complex, the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room, and the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room. The Racing Complex features Racing with a total of eight karts; four on each side of the Complex. The Golf Complex features two Practice Ranges for golfing; one range on each side of the Complex. A Golf Pro-shop is coming soon for the Golf Complex. The Green Poker Room featured four green poker tables that users can play anytime. The Red Poker Room featured four red poker tables but requires users to have 2,000 points to play. On July 16, 2009, EA Sports released another room for
1488-517: The EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex. On August 2, 2011, EA Sports launched the EA Sports Season Ticket subscription service. It was discontinued in 2015 and it was replaced with the similar EA Access service. Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. Nevertheless, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it
1550-451: The EA Sports Complex to the Japanese version of Home. They also released NFL jerseys for every team in the league for purchase inside of the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex. EA Sports have also teamed up with the Home team to produce and distribute exclusive virtual items that serve to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month . 100% of proceeds for these items went go to
1612-550: The ESPN license began with ESPN Radio and a sports ticker in titles like Madden NFL, NBA Live, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NCAA Baseball and Football. The ESPN integration now includes streaming podcasts, text articles (including content only available previously to ESPN Insider subscribers), and ESPN Motion video (including such programs as Pardon the Interruption ). The federal district case O'Bannon v. NCAA , decided in 2014, involved
1674-599: The FIFA name would have little impact on the player experience since the league and team licenses would be unaffected. EA had trademarked EA Sports FC as a potential replacement name for the series. The last game released under the FIFA banner was 2022's FIFA 23 . On March 2, 2022, EA, along with FIFA, NHL and the NHL Players' Association, the IIHF and F1 announced that they removed any of their names and logo licensing rights involving
1736-511: The June 18, 2009 update, the Complex's name changed to the EA Sports Racing Complex and the Upstairs changed to the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room. Other than the name change, the update took away the golfing range and added four more karts for users to play Racing at and it also added one red poker table to the poker room. The July 2, 2009 update added golf and another poker room making four rooms for
1798-452: The MLB license. In January 2008, EA Sports decided not to renew their NCAA College Baseball license while they evaluated the status of their MVP game engine. In 2005, EA Sports and ESPN signed a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games from Sega and 2K . EA's use of the ESPN license has steadily increased over the early life of the deal. EA's early usage of
1860-695: The NFL Exclusive deal on January 11, 2005, EA Sports signed a four-year exclusive deal with the Arena Football League (AFL). On April 11, 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and EA Sports signed a deal to grant EA Sports the sole rights to produce college football games for six years. EA lost the rights for Major League Baseball (MLB) games to 2K Sports in 2005, ending EA's MVP series; however, EA made NCAA Baseball games in 2006 and 2007 after losing
1922-578: The PC since 1998, the Tiger Woods series' last PC game was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 , the NASCAR series had not had a PC version since NASCAR SimRacing in 2005, and the last Madden series to be released on PC was Madden NFL 08 . The NHL series' last PC game was NHL 09 . Likewise, NBA Live 08 was the final PC version for NBA Live . The head of EA Sports at that time, Peter Moore , cited piracy and
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1984-594: The Red Poker Room. They also added a fifth green table to the Green Poker Room. The update also included the addition of the EA Sports Pro Shop where users can purchase full boxing outfits and furniture from Fight Night Round 4 . The Pro Shop is found in the Racing Complex. The August 16, 2009 update replaced the fifth green table in the Green Poker Room with a red table. They also reduced the number of points for
2046-630: The Russian and Belarusian teams in both FIFA 22 and NHL 22 , citing the recent events related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine . The removals from both games also affected the development of F1 22 ; with Nikita Mazepin of the Haas F1 Team being replaced by Kevin Magnussen , the Russian Grand Prix being removed from the lineup, and the logos of Mazepin's sponsor Uralkali being removed. For
2108-490: The arena for the school's women's basketball game with Hiram College . The game had been rescheduled, with NCAA approval, to allow terminally ill Mount St. Joseph player Lauren Hill to play in a college game. The game also served as a charity fundraiser for research into diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma , the brain cancer from which Hill was suffering. On April 13, 2015, the arena hosted a public memorial service for Hill following her death three days earlier. Later that year,
2170-756: The best home-court advantages in the NCAA and was named the #3 Toughest Place to Play on EA Sports' NCAA Basketball '10. Through the 2018-2019 season, Cintas Center has hosted 3,011,308 fans for Xavier home games and the Musketeers have averaged 10,071 fans (better than 98% capacity) per game during that time. The 2017-2018 season marked the highest average attendance in Cintas Center history with an average 10,475 (over 102% capacity) Musketeer fans at each home game. *Attendance limited due to Covid-19 Restrictions The Schiff Family Conference Center has 5,600 sq ft (520 m) of meeting space spread across 5 conference rooms and 1 executive board room. One floor below
2232-541: The career mode was added and in NHL 2000, the tournament mode. Ultimate edition: Wayne Gretzky ( Edmonton ) Deluxe edition: Luke Hughes ( New Jersey ) along with his brothers Quinn and Jack. This version wasn't released in a physical format. In addition to the NHL itself, the different installments of the game include development leagues like the American Hockey League and ECHL , major junior leagues like
2294-473: The entire cache of stolen data after failing to extort the company and later sell the stolen files to a third-party buyer. Prior to the start of the 2023–24 season , EA Sports signed with the Spanish football league association, Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional to sponsor both first and second tier competitions which were under the title name, "LaLiga EA Sports" and "LaLiga Hypermotion" for five seasons with
2356-516: The fact that the "PC as a platform for authentic, licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles [...] have attracted millions of consumers." However, the FIFA series continues to be released on PC, and for the first time since 2008, Madden NFL 19 was released for PC. Following EA's purchase of Codemasters, the F1 series would be published by EA on PC. On April 23, 2009, EA Sports released
2418-596: The final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2 , but for the original PlayStation as well. EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor English Football League Two team Swindon Town F.C. from the 2009–10 season onward and the EA Sports Cup in the Republic of Ireland . In July 2021, hackers who breached Electronic Arts in June 2021, have released
2480-498: The first game to introduce an ice level analyst, with TSN analyst Ray Ferraro appearing in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. Color commentary has been provided by Daryl Reaugh (NHL 98–99), Bill Clement (NHL 2000–2001, and NHL 07–14 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), Don Taylor (NHL 2002–2003), Craig Simpson (NHL 2004–09), Eddie Olczyk (NHL 15–19). Ferraro made
2542-451: The jump from ice-level analyst to full color commentator in NHL 20 (NHL 20–present). Gary Thorne , Bill Clement (PS3, Xbox 360) One idea that has been widely discussed over many years within the fan community is a purported automatic built-in gameplay mechanism called ”ice tilt”, which modifies skaters' and/or goalies' and/or the referee's penalty-decision-making behavior irrationally to favor
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2604-498: The leagues and teams for their names, logos, and player likeness rights. According to The New York Times in October 2021, FIFA had started discussions with EA in the prior two years on renewing these rights towards an exclusivity deal but with several caveats that has made negotiations difficult. Among FIFA's requests was increasing the exclusive license fee to $ 1 billion over each four-year period between FIFA World Cups , and limiting
2666-472: The long-awaited "EA Sports Complex" space for the PlayStation 3 's online community-based service, PlayStation Home in the European and North American versions. In the Complex, users can play a series of mini-games, including poker , kart racing , golf , and it also features a Virtual EA Shop. There are also a number of advertisements for upcoming EA Sports games. Each mini-game that the Complex features has
2728-602: The member leagues of the Canadian Hockey League , European national leagues from Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic, and the European Champions Hockey League . As is traditional with EA Sports, the NHL series boxes feature live action photos instead of drawings. As it lacked the NHLPA license, the early titles staged photos without real players. NHLPA Hockey 93 , on
2790-680: The other hand, had the rights to use player images, but not of the teams. On this cover, the main action photo features the New York Rangers ' Randy Moller checking the Philadelphia Flyers ' Rod Brind'Amour while Rangers goaltender Mike Richter makes a save (in this photo there is the logo of the New York Rangers located on the bottom right of the goaltender's pants). This photo is surrounded by eight small portraits of players ( Steve Yzerman , Andy Moog , Pat LaFontaine , Brian Leetch , Ray Bourque , Patrick Roy , Jeremy Roenick , and Rick Tocchet ). This changed with NHL 94 , which featured
2852-406: The play-by-play commentary in all Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions from NHL 07 through NHL 14 . NBC Sports commentator Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk provided the play-by-play and color commentary on all platforms, with their first appearance together being in NHL 15 and last in NHL 19 . James Cybulski is the current play-by-play commentator, starting with NHL 20 . NHL 15 was also
2914-419: The possibility to change individual players in teams. On PC, NHL 96 was in 3D with 2D player textures, fights are back (most recently in the first two games). NHL 97 was the first full 3D installment, the national teams of Canada , USA and Russia have been added, the other two teams contain a compilation of the best European players. In NHL 98 , 18 national teams were already included. In NHL 99,
2976-503: The realm of NBA games, with 2K releasing the NBA 2K series. Konami is its rival in association football games with their own series, eFootball . For several years after the brand was created, all EA Sports games began with a stylized five-second video introducing the brand with Andrew Anthony voicing its motto, "It's in the game", meaning that its games aimed at simulating the actual sports as authentically and completely as possible; Anthony
3038-464: The rights of college athletes to be able to control their likelinesses in downstream products from NCAA properties. The case specifically concerned EA's NCAA Basketball 09 when it was first filed in 2009, leading EA to abandon the NCAA Basketball line that year. The case was ruled in favor of the college athletes, which made licensing of these for EA's games more difficult. While EA had continued
3100-600: The said game was pulled from digital storefronts in May 2018. 2K Sports announced that they would assume their licensing agreement with the PGA Tour beginning with the release of The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour in 2018. The NFL, the NFL's Players' Association, and EA confirmed its exclusivity contract for NFL sports simulation games in May 2020, lasting through at the 2025–2026 NFL season with an optional one-year extension. The new contract allows EA to develop NFL games outside of
3162-418: The scope of this exclusivity to association football simulation games, while EA wanted to expand the branding into new video game ventures such as esports using the game, an area that FIFA wanted to either keep to themselves or license to other developers to expand their own revenues. FIFA issued a statement following this report that stated they had reached an impasse with EA on the negotiations. FIFA's position
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#17330941835063224-458: The software for it. NHL 99 was the first game in the series to feature fully licensed music from David Bowie for the intro video. Since then, each game has had soundtracks of licensed music known as EA Sports Trax, with selections of punk , alternative , and rock music . Electronic and hip hop music was later added to the mix in later games. NHL 15 and NHL 16 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One use an original orchestral score instead for
3286-480: The two EA Sports Complex poker rooms between November 5, 2009, and November 25, 2009. On November 25, 2009, Fight Night Round 4 producers Mike Mahar and Brian Hayes were in Home between the hours of 4:00pm and 5:00pm PT (7:00pm and 8:00pm EST), for a live chat with the PlayStation Home community in one instance of the Club Fight Night space. On January 7, 2010, EA Sports released NCAA college football jerseys in
3348-717: The two schools launched the Lauren Hill Tipoff Classic, an annual season-opening event featuring both schools' women's teams, at the arena. Within the main arena are 22 luxury boxes as well as the Joseph Club, a VIP bar overlooking the court. A practice facility, the Kohlhepp Family Auxiliary Gym, is attached to the arena and is used by the athletic teams, as well as being used as additional event space when needed. There are also state-of-the-art weight and training rooms as well as 4 large locker rooms. There
3410-424: The typical EA Madden titles, including for mobile games. In February 2021, EA announced it was returning to college sports with a EA College Football game to be released within the next couple of years. As planned, the game will not use any player likenesses, but instead bypasses the issues with the NCAA by licensing all other branding related to college football such as team names, uniforms, and stadiums through
3472-462: The use of the league's player names and likenesses. In NHL Hockey from 1991, the game modes were season and playoff, and due to the license, the game was called EA Hockey in Europe and featured 22 national teams instead. NHLPA Hockey '93 was without the NHL license, so instead of NHL team names and logos, there were only cities . In NHL 95 were added game modes exhibition, training, shootout and
3534-495: The €30 million a year deal. In June 2023, EA announced a restructuring of the company, having EA Entertainment and EA Sports as two separate divisions inside the business, with Cam Weber becoming the president of the division. In 2003, EA purchased the license to NASCAR for six years, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames . The NASCAR license expired in 2009 and the NASCAR license would be owned by Polyphony Digital for
3596-524: Was also installed on the north wall of the arena. The luxury suites and Joseph Club were also renovated. Following the 2016 season, the basketball floor was updated to remove the skyline. As a concert venue Cintas Center can seat as few as 2,000 or as many as 10,000. The arena features 15,000 square feet (1,400 m) of space. It also is used for trade shows, conventions, and corporate meetings, among other events. Cintas Center also hosts upwards of 30 graduations each year. The main tenant of Cintas Center
3658-402: Was featured on the cover of NHL 13 and Martin Brodeur was on the cover of NHL 14 . On June 24, 2014, EA Sports announced at the 2014 NHL Awards in Las Vegas that Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins would be the official cover athlete for NHL 15 . In 2015, during the NHL awards, it was announced that the cover of NHL 16 would feature Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane carrying
3720-424: Was introduced in the PC version of NHL 97 . Jim Hughson , former play-by-play man for CBC 's Hockey Night in Canada and also one of Canada's best-known hockey announcers, provided the play-by-play for much of the series. The last games in which he is one of the announcers are the PC and PS2 versions of NHL 09. Bill Clement was the sole commentator in the Nintendo 64 version of NHL 99 . Gary Thorne provided
3782-416: Was never compensated for his appearance and did it merely as a favour to a friend. Unlike some other sports game companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most of the other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98 , Madden NFL 98 , NBA Live 98 , and NHL 98 were released for
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#17330941835063844-534: Was that it has "a duty to support its 211 member associations to fully capitalise on the inherent opportunities that have been emerging over the recent years. As part of this strategy, FIFA also commits to continuing to organise skill-based eSports tournaments under the umbrella of the recently launched FIFAe competition structure and consumer brand." To that end, FIFA believed it was necessary that any license agreement "must involve more than one party controlling and exploiting all rights". EA has considered that abandoning
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