While the technology has failed to replace the good ol' talking (human) heads that continue to dominate sports broadcast analysis today, its use has expanded beyond football to include basketball (as pictured), with Virtual Playbook featured in 2009 and 2010 NBA Playoffs coverage (though integration this year would seem in doubt -- unless they use Jam characters). Today, Moore's promise has been fulfilled, with EA announcing that the technology will soon be available to soccer broadcasters.
Virtual Playbook will of course use FIFA assets -- orchestrated through (expensive-sounding) "advanced virtual studio and camera tracking systems" provided by German broadcasting company Orad -- that would seem to further EA Sports branding in "global markets" and solidify the publisher's stranglehold on virtual sports, blurring the line between what's real and what's in the game.
[Image source: Inside EA]
