News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming:
• Nearly every title at EA Sports is being put to a cover vote. We've had contests now for Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NFL Blitz, Madden and NCAA Football. We haven't heard what NBA Live will be doing, but it's a good bet whatever it has in mind won't take as long as the NHL 13, which seems to mimic the span of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. This vote has now reached the quarterfinals, with Claude Giroux vs, Anze "Der" Kopitar and Scott Hartnell in one half of the bracket. Pavel Datsyuk vs. John Tavares and Henrik Lunqvist vs. Pekka Rinne are in the other. Vote here. The winner won't be declared for another month, the June 20 NHL Awards in Las Vegas.
• Pastapadre, sports video gaming's bloodhound, notes that we are still a long ways off from a patch for MLB 2K12. This is significant because we didn't—couldn't—get one from its March release through the end of April because of the Million-Dollar Perfect Game Challenge. 2K Sports couldn't alter the gameplay or the structure of the game while the contest was in place because of, who knows, legal restrictions or something. The same kind of legal restrictions that couldn't prevent contestants from cheating in the qualifying round, and did prevent 2K from weeding them out or even discussing the controversy. While a patch still is in the works, it hasn't yet cleared internal reviews, and then it must pass Microsoft's certification. So don't expect it for another couple weeks, I'd say. [Pastapadre]
• Speaking of covers, we forgot to give you the official Madden NFL 13 box art featuring Calvin Johnson, who I correctly, properly and admirably predicted as the overall winner a month before the vote-off began. Here it is.