Ever since Electronic Artists (EA) started investing in the mobile games scene, the company has produced a flurry of titles that have been a big hit with Apple fans. With the combination of console to iOS ports (FIFA 12, NBA JAM, Dead Space) and original content made exclusively for iOS (Max & the Magic Marker, Fantasy Safari), EA has become one of the hottest game developers for the iPhone and iPad.
Now that we’re rolling into the holiday season, EA is starting to feel the Christmas spirit and has created a “Daily Deals” page that highlights new deals on their most popular games.
When you’re a football player, you rely on your team’s playbook for learning and referencing different plays and strategies. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, iPad 2s will replace hefty playbooks. And the team’s 90 players will be able to peruse NFL video archives from the .34 inch tablet.
During last night’s Super Bowl Sunday, I was surrounded by a multitude of passionates for that noble game, fans who felt every impact of muscle and cartilage as gods collided upon the field. While friends around me pumped their firsts and said, with great authority, things like: “”Expect the Packers to try to tie a bow on this baby by running out the clock in the second half,” I nodded sagely and pretended to understand the game.
My secret, of course, is that I don’t. In fact, my understanding of professional football’s rules are almost entirely gleaned from this 1944 theatrical Goofy short that I watched on my iPhone on the car ride to my friend’s house for “the Big Game.”
One thing I do know, however, is the sanctity of the playbook: that secret tome of symbolic crosses and circles ascribed strategic meaning by arrows and squiggles. It’s always seemed to me that the average playbook would make a good app.
Ignorant as I may be of the way professional football is conducted, it looks like I’m not alone, as Dallas Cowboys technology director Pete Walsh has begun to push his team to start using iPads as their playbooks.
Apple advertising has intersected with the NFL over the years. As we endure the countdown to Super Bowl XLV on a (thankfully snow-free) Sunday morning here in the States, a look back at some Apple ads either related to football or which ran during the Big Game itself.
The very popular I’m-A-Mac campaign gave the glory to the Referee in one spot, that unsung hero and arbiter of the game. The battle then was Leopard vs. Vista, and the ref got the call right!
Arguably the best soccer game on any console, the much anticipated Pro Evolution Soccer is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch and boasts a unique ‘true flow’ control system, unrivalled realism and official UEFA competitions exclusive to Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. But does it compete with other big soccer games already available in the App Store?
![Tampa Bay Buccaneers Give Each Player an iPad to Replace Playbook [Report]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ipad2back1.jpg)
![Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Now Available To Those Outside U.S. On iPhone & iPod Touch [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Screen-shot-2010-06-14-at-13.38.14.jpg)
