Virgin Gaming Becomes Exclusive EA Sports Tournament Provider

EA SPORTS and Virgin Gaming today announced a new agreement whereby Virgin Gaming becomes the official worldwide provider of online tournaments for EA SPORTS.  The agreement covers all head-to-head competitive play, pay-to-enter and sponsored tournaments for select EA SPORTS console video games. 

That could seriously put a crimp into several online pay-to-play and tournament services.

As part of the agreement, the Virgin Gaming tournament platform will integrate directly with select EA SPORTS titles offering seamless web functionality and enhanced community tools for competitive gaming across Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . The first tournaments will begin early 2011, with details to be announced in the near future.

“EA SPORTS is the leading sports video game brand and publisher in the world, and we are thrilled to offer our members the opportunities to compete in some of their very best multiplayer sports games,” said Rob Segal, CEO of Virgin Gaming. “Virgin Gaming is a unique convergence of competitive gaming, video games and social/community networking, and we are excited that EA SPORTS shares our vision for the platform and its potential.”

“Competitive online gaming is an increasingly popular component of our industry and a great way for EA SPORTS and Virgin Gaming to help connect gamers around the world through the global language of sports,” said Peter Moore, President of EA SPORTS.  “Virgin Gaming demonstrates the system-wide integrity we desire, and this is a great opportunity for EA SPORTS fans to experience secure and impeccably managed online tournaments for some of our top titles.”

This could work out well for gamers on the other hand. It could mean better control over EA Sports game tournaments as well as better organization and control. The exclusivity of the deal could interfere with other eSports organizations using EA Sports titles in their tournaments or could force them to pay a licensing fee to Virgin in order to use them. It’s all speculative since we are not privy to the exact details of the agreement but from the announcement that is what it sounds like.