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Video games give sports stars second life

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Agence France-Presse

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style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><div style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CwVivcSv4S0/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by 2K (@2k)</a></div></div></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script>PARIS -- The post-retirement careers of the biggest sports stars can be fascinating to watch -- Viagra ads, property ventures, crypto projects -- but one option is becoming a sure-fire winner: put your face on the cover of a video game.</p><p>And death is no barrier for this particular career, with two popular games this year choosing sports legends who are no longer with us.</p><p>LA Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter accident in 2020, graces the cover of &quot;NBA 2K24&quot;.</p><p>And two of the world&#x27;s greatest footballers from bygone eras -- Pele and Johan Cruyff -- get posthumous respect with their figures emblazoned on &quot;FC 24&quot; from EA Sports.</p><p>They are joined on the cover of the EA game by a galaxy of still-living stars of the more recent past -- Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho -- and present -- Erling Haaland and Alexia Putellas.</p><p>French legend Zidane told AFP in June that many young children now knew him largely through his appearance in the EA&#x27;s game, formerly known as &quot;FIFA.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Kids aged eight to 10 don&#x27;t know me, unless their dads have told them about what I did back in the day,&quot; said the World Cup winner.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s more through PlayStation, so it&#x27;s kind of funny. I&#x27;m used to it.&quot;</p><div><strong>Marketing nostalgia </strong></div><p>The ties between video game publishers and sports stars go deep, particularly in the United States.</p><p>The leading video game series on American football bears the name of a former player, John Madden, who retired in 1978 to become a sports commentator.</p><p>Julien Pillot, an economist specializing in cultural industries, told AFP the endorsement of bona fide legends was clearly a powerful marketing tool.</p><p>And the often huge cost of getting their endorsement, he said, was &quot;more than offset&quot; by the sales they generate -- both of the games themselves and the ubiquitous in-game &quot;cards&quot; required to unlock additional content.</p><p>Gaming firms were playing on the &quot;intergenerational aspect&quot; and adding &quot;a touch of nostalgia&quot;, said Pillot.</p><p>It&#x27;s a feature that executives are not shy about highlighting.</p><p>&quot;My seven-year-old only really knows who Pele is because of his amazing rating on FC,&quot; David Jackson, vice-president of the EA Sports FC brand, told AFP.</p><p>He said the game had allowed fans to feel a little bit of the magic of playing with stars from earlier generations.</p><p>And it works both ways, according to some of the stars involved -- even those who don&#x27;t rate as highly as Pele.</p><p>&quot;People of a certain generation know me by what I&#x27;ve done on the pitch,&quot; said World Cup winner Robert Pires at the launch party for the EA game in Paris.</p><p>But a 12-year-old boy told Pires recently he had only learnt who the French star was through playing the game.</p><p>&quot;I asked him: &#x27;Am I good?&#x27;&quot; said Pires. &quot;He told me: &#x27;You&#x27;re good, but you&#x27;re slow.&#x27;&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

The ties between video game publishers and sports stars go deep, particularly in the United States.