National Lacrosse League (NLL) to introduce Video Game, NLL Lacrosse 2010 presented by Reebok

March 31st, 2010 by Steve Kojima

The National Lacrosse League (NLL) today announced that a new NLL video game will be available for download on Xbox 360’s Indie Game Channel near the end of April. The game will include every NLL franchise and full player rosters.

Titled ‘NLL Lacrosse 2010 presented by Reebok’, this new video game will be available for just $5 per download. It is being created in partnership with Carlo Sunseri of Crosse Studio and Triple B Games.

Dan Dawson, Mark Steenhuis, Brodie Merrill, Matt Alrich and Zach Greer – players under contract with Reebok – will be the cover boys.

Sunseri says the game has been in development for approximately a year and a half. Programming was initially taken from a soccer game and created with help from a Scotland developer.

“We’re very excited about bringing an NLL game back to market,” stated NLL Commissioner George Daniel.

“The game itself looks twice as good as College Lacrosse 2010,” added Sunseri, whose College Lacrosse 2010 field lacrosse video game has had 100,000 downloads since November of last year. “The game-play is hard-hitting, high-tempo.”

The NLL previously had a video game contract with Activation in 2004 which fell through. The best known NLL video game was Blast Lacrosse released in 2001 by Sony PlayStation.

George Daniel noted major game developers like EA Sports have stated the lacrosse audience isn’t quite big enough yet for them to develop a lacrosse game. Sunseri is hoping the NLL version of his video game will have at least 100,000 downloads in the first five months of its release.

“Rather than wishing for EA to come to us, we thought this was the best way to engage someone like Carlo, who has brought passion and entrepreneurial vision to this project,” added Daniel. “I’d rather see this as a first step in proving those other companies wrong.”

The game is slotted to drop on or near the date of April 30, 2010 – just before the league hits its playoff scheduling.

Daniel also added in a conference call that he does not anticipate NLL expansion for 2011.

More on the video game itself

“The game-play is great with tons of huge hits and shots that take crazy bounces off the boards,” says Carlo Sunseri. “The season mode is also very impressive and surprisingly tough to beat.”

Line changes can be made on the fly but there will be no fighting.

Players will be ranked on their ability. The four goalies who currently rank highest on the ‘tender charts are Orlando’s Matt Vinc, Boston’s Anthony Cosmo, Buffalo’s Ken Montour and Toronto’s Bob Watson.

An All-America at Simon Fraser and a decorated Jr. A player for Coquitlam, Kojima began covering lacrosse in 2003 and started working for Inside Lacrosse in 2007. Email him at steve.kojima@nllinsider.com or go to www.laxfuj.com.

Rate This Story: