Gillette is looking for the Champions of Gaming on the Xbox 360 along with Electronic Arts. The tournament starts on November 18 and runs through February 14, 2010. Gamers will compete against other games on Xbox Live on the following EA Sports titles: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10, EA SPORTS™ FIFA Soccer 10, Madden NFL 10, NHL® 10 and Fight Night Round 4.

Winners from each of the titles will have a chance to be crowned at the Gaming Final Event in March 2010.

“Last year, our match came down to the final shot. I’ve been practicing and I am ready to take another crack at this year’s best player,” said Tiger Woods.

That’s right, Tiger Woods attends and so will other sports superstars. The global tournament will have one nine part qualification round and one knockout round in three regions – North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The regional champs will face off and those winners will play against the sports superstars.

“We’re excited to once again provide gamers from around the world the opportunity to face off on some of our most popular EA SPORTS games through the Champions of Gaming Tournament on Xbox LIVE,” said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. “What continues to make this tournament truly stand out from other gaming tournaments is the extraordinary chance to compete face-to-face against Tiger Woods and other sports superstars.”

To enter check out all the rules at easports.com/gillette

Dreamcast

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite consoles ever, the Sega Dreamcast. Today the Dreamcast is 10 years old. My favorite moments was playing Phantasy Star Online and starting my first guild. I also loved playing Crazy Taxi with friends.

Peter Moore blogged today about his thoughts on the console.

“It certainly doesn’t feel like a decade has gone by since this innovative console ushered in the era of online gaming, albeit through a 56K modem, and thus changed the face of interactive entertainment forever,” Moore enthused.

“I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it’s online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today – online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc.”

“Over the years, I have been asked many times whether EA’s decision not to develop and publish games for the Dreamcast was a major contributing factor in its early demise,” he confessed. “That we will never know.

“But it is hard to argue with EA’s rationale at the time and the ultimate outcome – get in position for the impending arrival of the Playstation 2, deploying all resources against the newest version of Sony’s already wildly successful video game platform. You can’t argue with the results. EA came out of the blocks strongly in support of the PS2, and enjoyed tremendous success throughout the key years of that console’s life cycle.”

Moore also discusses how he wasn’t the one to make the final decision to kill the Dreamcast.

“As we emerged from the Christmas selling season of 2000 and collated the sales data in the following January, it was evident that we were falling short of the critical mass target we had set ourselves for continued investment,” he claims.

“The decision was made, from Japan, to pull the plug and begin the transition to becoming a multi-platform third party developer and publisher. The call on the decision was made by SOJ. The conference call to announce the decision was conducted by SOA.”

What are some of your fond Dreamcast memories?

At the EA press conference today in GamesCom, Peter Moore put on the shorts and teamed up with two-time Olympic gold figure skating medalist, Katarina Vitt. Together, they showed the audience the expansion for EA Sports Active.

To date, EA Sports Active has sold 1.8 million units. EA continues to support the franchise with 35 more workouts coming in November. The new title is EA Sports Active More Workouts. At the convention Peter Moore ended up doing the exercises while Katarina Vitt watched.

Look for more details as it gets closer to November.

UPDATE: Here the trailer for EA Sports Active More Workouts:

Peter Moore

Personally, I have to admit that I love Peter Moore. He’s passionate and when he goes after something he gets results. Today he talks about how EA Sports has solved “how to appeal to the female market”.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Peter Moore said, “It was a challenge. How do we go after this audience? How do we talk to women? We had no idea. We were used to appealing to their boyfriends or their brothers. It was scary. We felt we had nothing that would appeal to a female gamer. But now some figures say up to 40 per cent of all gamers are female, so we had to address it using our game engines, the great EA Sports brand – and by re-thinking the way we want to market.”

He said: “When I was at Reebok years ago, we took some plastic and made it into a step. We bundled it with a great video and told people it would enhance their workout at home, which it did. We had a $150 million business within a year.

“We had to go after a similar niche with EA Sports Active, appealing to women – who probably spent their days at home looking after the kids, and who didn’t have the time or money for the gym. We spotted this rise in health, wellness and fitness gaming early. We reached 1.8 million sales in its first month – and we’re changing people’s lives as well.

He added: “We’re finally talking to girls. We finally have women as part of the EA Sports community. It’s not a franchise, but a full platform for us going forward. It complements the Wii Balance Board.

“As Americans would say, it kicks your ass. You know about it after spending 25 minutes on this.”

Ah yes, the mysterious female gamer riddle is now solved with EA Sports Active. EA Sports Active is a great workout “game” that really has universal appeal. EA did a great job of marketing outside the normal channels to appeal to women. But to say that you conquered the female market for EA Sports, I think you have to get them to play more than just one title. But I do have to say great effort and I still love Peter Moore.

Last week, President Obama stated that videogames are linked to a sedentary lifestyle during a speech to the American Medical Association. EA’s Peter Moore decided to “challenge” Obama on his official blog.

“It may be time for the President and his family to put their Wii to good use and fire up the 30-Day Challenge with EA SPORTS Active. This is a “game” even the President may not want to “step away” from…

In fact, I know [Obama is] in pretty good shape, but I guarantee the President wouldn’t look quite so smooth walking across the White House lawn to Marine One the morning after his first session with EA SPORTS Active (especially if he does those pesky lunges)! …

Mr. President, here is my challenge to you: Try EA SPORTS Active and I guarantee you’ll need aides saying “Yes You Can!” to finish your first workout.”

Nice move Mr. Moore! I hope that someone shows this to President Obama because I bet he would try it.

[source GamePolitics]