Though not a retail release, the January reboot of NFL Blitz will still have a cover star, following a fan-voted campaign taking place during the Spike Video Game Awards next weekend.
The candidates for the downloadable game (on Xbox Live and Playstation Network) are the Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White, the Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and the San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis. Voting will take place during the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards on Saturday, Dec. 10, opening at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST at vga.spike.com. The results will be tabulated and the winner declared by the end of the show.
The promotion means a full calendar year of games developed at EA Sports' Tiburon studio have or will be released with fan-voted covers, from Madden NFL to NCAA Football and the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series.
Madden kicked off the concept last year with a three-player vote-off that ended in the landslide choice of Drew Brees for the Madden NFL 11 cover. This year, representatives of all 32 NFL teams were put into a March Madness-style bracket to determine a cover star. Fans cast nearly 13 million votes and anointed the Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis as the winner.