Freestyle: EA’s New Casual Sports Brand

Electronic Arts is looking to a new avenue — casual sports — to try and capitalize as they today announced a new sub-brand of EA Sports, called EA Sports Freestyle. It’ll be focusing on the growing casual sports gaming audience, with games that are “playful, inclusive, casual, and easy to pick up and play for kids and parents, women and men, and casual and hardcore sports fans of all ages.”

“The launch of EA Sports Freestyle is an exciting milestone in the evolution of the EA Sports brand,” said Peter Moore. “EA Sports Freestyle will be a perfect complement to our core portfolio of games that our loyal fans are deeply passionate about, and will provide compelling opportunities for new audiences looking for a lighter gaming experience and an easier entry point into EA Sports.”

Moore talked about expanding the EA Sports brand when he first took over last year. Freestyle has three games in development that will launch in the next year, the first of which will be FaceBreaker, set for release in September.

EA is claiming we’ll see more innovation from this brand; FaceBreaker is the first new IP from EA Sports since 2002, so we’ll have to wait and see if that’s all they have up their sleeve.