EA Sports’ latest batch of covers have been the subject of intense scrutiny; there are some who love the scattershot design, and others who hate them. So what exactly is going on? Why do they look like that? The answer, in hindsight, is a glaring one: coronavirus. Of course!
“Generally a global pandemic is a bad thing,” explained Shawn Hubbard, the official photographer of the NFL team the Baltimore Ravens. “However, when [EA Sports] wasn’t able to do its annual cover shoot, they came to the Ravens and I to use my image library to create these covers.”
Quarterback Lamar Jackson is the star of Madden NFL 21 this year, and he’s shown in various poses as part of a scrapbook-style design. The covers for EA Sports UFC 4 and FIFA 21 are similar.
Under normal circumstances, EA Sports would have rented out a studio, put the athletes in front of a green screen, and done a professional photoshoot to create the assets for its covers. This year, due to the pandemic, that wasn’t possible, so this is what it came up with. Honestly, we like the covers!
[source twitter.com, via polygon.com]
Comments 21
I think it looks pretty neat.
It comes off incredibly lazy to me.
I like the idea of the collage-style images, but I can't stand all the white space. All that negative space makes them look super awkward and cheap to me. They don't quite stick the landing but they're close.
@gbanas92 there's literally a tiny picture of just grass. How embarrassing! EA really sucks!
I try to be positive, but this is inexcusable.
I like the covers in concept, but they could be better. Honestly sports game covers have never been outstanding. A picture of an athlete on a pitch. At least this is a bit different
@Mafia_Man19 how else are we gonna know the sport involves grass if there's no picture though?!?!?!
I think they look quite cool actually. They're still not games that I would play but the update definitely feels more modern even if it's in kind of a retro (but not EA like) style
An EA exec took one look at the transitions in Hulk (2003) and said "do that."
So they dragged some images into PowerPoint and just left them where they landed...
I like to stay optimistic in life, but these cover arts are abysmal.
I don't care, I want gameplay not boxes and menus!
@Deadlyblack I think I know how you feel
@naruball Whoops lol, didn't realize our comments were so similar.
@naruball inexcusable? A bit high and mighty don't ya think?
@hi_drnick Not high and mighty at all. You misunderstood what I meant.
I think this looks like a middle school project that teachers would give a C for lack of effort. That's all. I don't expect a professional photoshoot, but at least they could hire someone talented instead of someone who seems to have thrown a bunch of pictures together right before a presentation.
Saying, sorry that's all we could do because of the pandemic is just not convincing to me. There is so much more you can do with a bit of effort and talent. I bet fans could have done something that looks more professional.
@Deadlyblack No worries. I found it pretty cool.
I don't care for the covers, but I like the idea behind them, improvision is a good thing.
Coronavirus, really? Sony can make a high quality PS5 advert that was partially filmed in an apartment but EA can't even set up a green screen? Nope, not buying that one.
Well if ur upset about the cover, just wait til u play the game! (Or so ive heard)
.. cut and paste the covers, like they do the games every year, makes perfect sense to me... eventually it's just going to be a serious of clip-art game features where every feature is hidden in a loot box (you have 0.003% chance of getting any non-mtx gaming content)
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