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Esports return to the X Games with 'Apex Legends'
It's been three years since electronic sports were a feature of the X Games, but this year marks its glorious return to the tournament. ESPN has announced that Apex Legends'will be the star of this year's show, with invitational qualifiers taking place on June 29th.
ESPN launches an esports event series, starting with 'Apex Legends'
ESPN is about to expand its fledgling esports strategy in a very noticeable way. The broadcaster has launched an EXP esports series that will bring competitive gaming to its events. They'll typically include a variety of games with collegiate, pro and pro-am formats. You'll have to watch online if you want to tune in live, but there will be "tape-delayed" highlights show on ESPN and other ABC TV channels after the fact.
ESPN's X Games to use GoPro footage during live broadcasts
ESPN is never afraid to experiment with new technologies. Earlier this year, it used drones to capture footage of athletes as they performed during the winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. That recorded content, however, was limited to being used for replays or post-show highlights, if at all. But, over the past few months, ESPN has been working with GoPro to bring a new, real-time camera angle to its broadcast of this year's summer X Games, scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas from June 4th to June 7th. For the first time ever, the sports network will be using video from GoPros in live broadcasts of the event, giving viewers at home a first-person look at the action while it happens.
ESPN is bringing camera drones to the X Games
Last September, the Federal Aviation Administration began working with movie and TV groups to grant them approval for operating drones in national airspace. Most recently, cable news channel CNN got the green light from the FAA to use these UAVs for news reporting, and now ESPN's managed to do the same. The sports network has announced that it plans to use camera-equipped drones during this year's Winter X Games, which are set to take place in Aspen, Colorado. It will be the first time ESPN has done this; the company says this technology is next in a long line of several advances and enhancements for its broadcasts, such as the Pylon Cams we saw recently at the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Major League Gaming adds Call of Duty to ESPN's X Games lineup
Alongside the skateboarders, BMX bikers and other extreme athletes at the upcoming X Games Austin, a comparatively sedate group of gamers will be furiously gunning one another down in a Call of Duty tournament that Major League Gaming hopes will become tradition. According to ESPN, the tournament will feature MLG's top five Call of Duty: Ghosts teams, as well as the top three teams from the recent Call of Duty championships. These eight teams will battle it out, first in double-elimination, then single-elimination matches. At first glance this seems like an odd combination - ESPN describes itself as the worldwide leader in sports, while Call of Duty matches are defined by players sitting largely motionless for lengthy stretches of time - if you dig into the history of things it starts to make sense. Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni once served as the resident gaming expert on ESPN's morning talk show Cold Pizza, and DiGiovanni's long-standing relationship with the network served as the impetus for this partnership. "The [Call of Duty] subject matter is mature and it's not something that is going to be right for everybody, but there's a huge section of the audience that plays these games," DiGiovanni said. "You'll see when these games are released -- one of the main places they are advertised is on the ESPN networks." DiGiovanni makes a valid point, but it remains to be seen if ESPN's traditional X Games audience will come for the wicked-sweet kickflips and stay for the rampant killstreaks. [Image: Activision]
AT&T abruptly drops ESPN 3D from U-verse during the X-Games citing high price, low demand
Support by AT&T U-verse for the fledgling ESPN 3D channel always seemed halfhearted, while it was one of the providers to carry the channel at launch it was the only one at that time to levy a $10 fee for the privilege of viewing. The good news for subscribers is that $10 fee is gone, but the bad news is the channel has exited stage left along with it yesterday, before the last night of ESPN's big X-Games broadcast in 3D with no apparent warning. AT&T's reason for the move follows after the break, which lays out the case that even despite interested viewers chipping in their Hamiltons it has decided with there's not enough demand to support the "high cost" of ESPN 3D. Slow down on ringing the death knell for 3D everywhere however, since AT&T is still hanging onto its 3D VOD movies, for now. Its willingness to make the rare move of dropping one of the sports leaders offerings definitely speaks to the niche status of 3D, but experience suggests this comes down to a dollars and cents decision across the entire swath of the ever growing ESPN / ABC / Disney family. [Thanks, Larry]
ESPN X Games 17 returns with more than double the 3D coverage, takes rally racing to the streets
ESPN has released some of the broadcast details for Summer X Games 17, scheduled to occur between July 28th - 31st, and it's increasing from eight hours of 3D coverage last year to a planned 18 hours this time around. Interestingly, the HD schedule has been shortened slightly from 31 hours to 25, but there's still plenty of sports action to catch, including a new Enduro X motocross competition and a move to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the Rally racing competitions. Check all the details currently available in the press release after the break, we're going to go find and wash our Travis Pastrana jersey.
ESPN kicks off Winter X Games 15 broadcasts in HD, 3D & on mobiles tomorrow
After kicking off its original 3D productions with X Games 16 last summer and airing X Games 3D The Movie back in '09, ESPN is preparing to cover Winter X Games 15 all weekend across its various platforms as well. The schedule is set for 24 hours of HD sports broadcasts on ESPN and ESPN2, while ESPN 3D is set up for 18 hours of action across nine individual windows. ESPN3 is also getting in on the action with 34 hours of coverage including 10 hours of exclusive coverage and streaming video, while ESPN Mobile TV is carrying 23 hours of coverage and owners of Android or iOS devices can snag the Winter X Games app for even more information. Along with 56 HD cameras and 13 3D cameras, the I-Movix ultra slow motion camera from the Beijing Olympics will be back in action as the Mega Mo providing replays captured at 4500 frames per second. Check the press releases after the break for more details and all the schedules and the above ESPN 3D spot.
Sony Style stores to air X Games 16 in 3D tonight, Saturday
Don't have a 3DTV setup yet, but still want to get a piece of ESPN 3D's X Games 16 production? Grab a map and find the nearest Sony Style -- and hope it's open past 8 tonight, past 7 Saturday -- since they will be displaying the broadcasts during store hours. Tonight's featured event is Moto X Freestyle, while Saturday the rally cars and their in-car 3D cameras take center stage. If you get a chance to check it out, let us know what you think, or if any other retailers are taking advantage of some new 3D content to try and get customers in the door.
ESPN 3D goes international, brings X Games 16 to Australia's Foxtel and Austar
The debut of X Games 16 and its 8 hours of live 3D broadcast is nearly upon us, and for the first time in ESPN 3D's short history, viewers outside the US will be able to get a look at the action. The lucky country is Australia (already known for being ahead of the curve on 3D) and it appears that AUSTAR won't be content letting Foxtel take the lead like it did with HD, since both will have the network on channel 206 on Friday, July 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. AEST and Sunday, August 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. AEST. All iQ2 and MyStar HD subs (with 3DTVs of course) should have access to the channel -- check the press release after the break for any other details and prepare for some morning extreme sports with your toast & baked beans.
ESPN lays out X Games 16 coverage via online, HD & 3D formats, including in-car 3D cams
We're just a couple of days away from the beginning of X Games 16 in Los Angeles, and beyond just the high flying acrobatic stunts, it should be also be a broadcasting technological showcase. Just two years removed from making its HD debut, this year's summer X will get 31 hours (up from 20 last year) of dedicated HD coverage on ESPN & ESPN2, 27 hours of simulcast coverage + 10 hours of exclusive video on ESPN3, 28 hours of live video on the ESPN Mobile platform, a YouTube channel plus daily updates on Facebook and Xbox Live. As for that newly launched 3D network? Expect eight hours of live coverage from 14 native 3D cameras (including the "3D Mega Mo" ultra slow motion camera) including men's and women's Super X racing, the Big Air Skateboard competition, and rally car events featuring the first live use of wireless 3D cameras mounted in the car. Even more details are in the press release after the break.
X-Games 3D the Movie debuts August 21
3D will take another big step forward this week with the one week only appearance of X-Games 3D The Movie. ESPN promises it's the first full-length sports 3D flick and has gone to great lengths to make sure it's an incredible experience. It already screened in L.A. during the summer X-Games, but in case you didn't catch it there peep the trailer (2D) embedded after the break.
ESPN presenting X Games 3D the Movie this summer
The X Games haven't even been HDTV broadcasts that long, but this summer they'll make the jump to 3D with X Games 3D the Movie. Coming as a part of Disney's Digital 3D push, it will include footage from multiple X Games events including skateboarding with Danny Way, Shaun White snowboarding and Travis Pastrana rally car racing, calling itself the first sports-themed 3D movie. 3D definitely brought something extra to the BCS National Championship Game, so while extreme sports may not be our most logical next step, we'll be checking this one out too.
ESPN's Winter X Games 12 debuts in HD tonight
You've known it was coming, but tonight is finally the night in which you can kick back, relax and enjoy hours upon hours of your favorite extreme winter sports in glorious high-definition. In a move made far too late (but we're thankful nonetheless), ESPN has finally decided to cover this year's events from Aspen, Colorado in HD, marking the first time in Winter X history in which the entire four-day event will be broadcast in 720p across the ESPN family of networks. Ready to cancel a few plans and check out Sal Masekela (among other things) in HD? Hit the read link for the full schedule -- the first snowflake flies tonight at 9:00PM EST on ESPN HD.[Image courtesy of Aspen / Snowmass]
ESPN's Winter X Games 12, now in HDTV
The 2008 Summer Olympics will have to hold on, ESPN has announced the Winter X Games is going HD in its 12th edition. Kicking off January 24th from Aspen Colorado, viewers can look forward to 15 hours of "winter action sports", as well as XCENTER, the daily highlight show broadcast in HDTV. If snow isn't your thing don't worry, the regular X Games will also make the resolution jump in August for X Games 14.
VCAST TV adds temporary channel for X Games
If you thought Verizon's launch lineup for VCAST TV was a bit thin, don't fret -- MediaFLO's got bandwidth to spare -- but you might get extra channels spoon-fed to you one special at a time. Subscribers may have already noticed that EXPN has already showed up on that tiny screen of theirs, offering up all the X Games 13 coverage they can handle from July 22 through August 7. The extra channel supplements X Games coverage on ESPN Mobile TV (one of VCAST TV's permanent channels), so between the two, mobile warriors shouldn't miss a minute of the action.[Via mocoNews]
Go Pro's Digital Hero waterproof wrist camera
When given your choice of aquatic wrist-wear this summer, why opt for the nerdy-but-possibly-lifesaving SenTAG, when Go Pro's Digital Hero shock-proof polycarbonate sport wrist camera is so much more interesting? Sure, it's gigantic and unwieldy, but it weighs less than 3-ounces and is waterproof up to a depth of 30-feet. Plus, it goes around your wrist! What else could you want? Specs? Oh, right. With 32MB of internal memory, you can expect to get VGA photos and QVGA videos, with the latter giving a frame-rate less like Step Into Liquid and more like an old movie of Babe Ruth running the bases. We admit, it doesn't quite live up to legitimate underwater cams like Pentax's Optio WPi, but for $80, including the necessary AAA battery, what can you expect? Just think of the totally rad footage you'll get when you combine it with your Tony Hawk helmet cam.[Via Travelizmo]
