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ESPN Bringing Social Games to Facebook

by Amar Toor on May 19, 2010 at 04:40 PM

ESPN on facebookAs ESPN's empire has grown over the years, the self-appointed Worldwide Leader in Sports has gradually begun shifting its focus away from its television kingdom, and toward its digital principalities. After rolling out a fresh new batch of locally focused sports news sites earlier this year, the network has now made a major move toward enhancing its presence in the social networking world, as well.

As Mashable reports, ESPN Interactive recently announced plans to develop a new line of social sports games, as part of a fresh two-year contract with social gaming company Playdom. The new games are slated to launch sometime this fall, and will be designed to run on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5 and Tagged. "Our deal with Playdom marks ESPN's first major presence into the social gaming space," ESPN VP Raphael Poplock said in a statement yesterday. "The sports genre for this category of games has gone virtually untapped thus far, and through this agreement, we have an opportunity to be in front of a highly engaged audience and at the forefront of what is currently the fastest growing games category out there."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the network is also planning on releasing six new apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, five of which will focus on local sports scenes in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Dallas. The sixth, called ESPN Passport, will reportedly feature location-based GPS technology, allowing users to check-in from games they attend, and share their experiences with others.

As of yet, there's no indication which games or sports will be included in ESPN's package, but it's high time the network jumped in the social gaming pool with both feet. Sports have always been an inherently social phenomena, and spectators usually love gaming against each other as much as they do debating the merits of the designated hitter. It was inevitable that the two worlds would one day collide on the social networking stage. And with ESPN throwing its money (and its name) behind the project, it probably won't disappoint. [From: Mashable and The Hollywood Reporter]

Tags: apps, ESPN, facebook, games, gaming, iphone, IpodTouch, SocialNetworking, sports, top, videogames, web

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