With eSports growing at a rapid pace, NBA 2K & the National Basketball Association have announced the NBA 2K eLeague, which is scheduled to launch in 2018.

While long-term plans include an eSports team for every NBA franchise, the initial five-month season will feature teams for approximately only half of the league. Each team will have five professional gamers being paid salaries with the goal of making this endeavor their full-time job. Current plans include an 82-game season and playoffs for the eLeague. There has been a lack of a definitive launch timeframe and association with a specific title (to date).

What do you think of this formal eLeague? Are you interested? Will you watch or follow along?

Continue on to read coverage of this announcement from ESPN & USA Today as they have provided the most details thus far. ...

The official EA SPORTS Madden NFL 17 Super Bowl LI Game Simulation predicts that the New England Patriots will rally to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 27-24 in Sunday's match-up.

In a battle going down to the wire, the sim has Tom Brady connecting on a 4th & 4 touchdown pass to Julian Edelman to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Do you think the game will play out like the simulation? How do you see the game playing out?

Continue on to see the simulation and to read the game recap from EA SPORTS. ...

Available this week only (Jan. 31 - Feb. 7) is the Madden NFL 17 Super Bowl LI Edition. For just $20, this digital download provides purchasers with the full game of Madden NFL 17 plus 5 All-Pro Packs for Madden Ultimate Team. This digital download is only available on Xbox Live & PlayStation Network.

Continue on to see the official press release on the Madden NFL 17 Super Bowl LI Edition courtesy EA SPORTS. ...

Game update 1.06 is now available for NHL 17.

Available just one week after game update 1.05 & tuner update 1.02, this patch fixes some smaller issues/bugs. These include, but are not limited to game crashes, HUT Competitive Seasons bugs, & more.

Continue on to read the patch notes published by EA SPORTS. ...

Game update 1.09 is now available for Madden NFL 17. While light on gameplay improvements, it does address an exploit that allowed users to have a high rate of success blocking field goals.

The primary area of focus for this patch is Madden Ultimate Team and more specifically, MUT Seasons. Season progress, playoff presentation, night games, and also a bug fix in this game update all help to improve this mode within MUT.

Continue on to read the patch notes straight from EA SPORTS.

Also, this weekend (Thu-Sat) is Madden Bowl from Orlando, site of the Pro Bowl. The competition will be streamed on YouTube. ...

In their latest development blog posted on the PlayStation website, MLB The Show 17 has released more information on Retro Mode, regional cover athletes, pre-order bonuses, & the 2017 developer blog and Twitch livestream schedule.

- A nod to baseball games of past, Retro Mode allows user to play with simplified controls and old school presentation graphics/UI elements. Pitching in the mode consists of using just one button, X, and the direction analog stick will help adjust pitch type and velocity.

- In Canada, the cover athlete will be Toronto's Aaron Sanchez. In Taiwan, Miami's Wei-Yin Chen will grace the cover.

- The blog/Twitch schedule reveals a new presentation package and two new commentators joining the booth. While details have been edited out with asterisks, it is believed that the intended text is 'MLB Network Presentation Package' and 'Harold Reynolds & Jon Smoltz Join the Booth.' Presentation details will come via a Twitch stream on March 2.

Continue on to read the full blog to read the details of the pre-order bonuses and to view the pre-release content schedule. ...

Content update #3 (title update 1.05) is now available for EA SPORTS NHL 17.

The biggest inclusion is the addition of a new feature, Competitive Seasons, within Hockey Ultimate Team. This mode will allow users to compete in a monthly season format to earn rewards. The better the player fares each month, the better the reward that can be earned at the season's end.

Also included within this update are improvements/changes to gameplay, EASHL, and presentation, along with Tuner 1.02.

Continue on to read details of content update #3 straight from EA SPORTS. ...

Madden NFL Mobile has received a new January update including updating the digital cover athlete to Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown after previously highlighting Rob Gronkowski and then Von Miller in previous updates.

The primary focus of this update includes changes to Defensive Gameplans to help alleviate the severity and harshness of some counters. Other additions within this update include social media sharing, quick selling coin collectibles from the pack opening screen (ala NBA LIVE Mobile), as well as stability fixes.

Continue on to read the blog from developer Danny Doeberling. ...

With the Nintendo Switch now publicly detailed and heading towards its March 3 release date, for those in the sports gaming community the focus has shifted towards game options, both short & long-term.

During the Nintendo Switch Presentation and subsequent release of console and game information, only two sports titles for the console were announced: EA SPORTS FIFA and NBA 2K18. Both are scheduled for a fall 2017 release with 2K18 detailed for a September release.

During the life-cycle of both the Nintendo Wii and Wii U, 3rd party titles were lacking, specifically in the sports realm. While EA SPORTS began making titles for the Wii, they were often considered lacking features, if not watered down ports of the console version(s).

While there is some speculation that EA SPORTS FIFA on the Switch will be built off of the PS3/360 versions of the title (speculation EA denies, by the way), NBA 2K18 will reportedly include many of the same features as the PS4/XB1 version: MyPLAYER, MyCAREER, MyTEAM, MyLEAGUE, and MyGM. ...