Meter

Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: Business and Technology

As early as mid-November, gamers will have the opportunity to play a video game that exclusively features historically black colleges and universities.

BSFx, created by black-owned Nergyzed Entertainment, is to feature more than 40 HBCU football teams, as well as their marching bands and cheering squads. Set to hit stores on Nov. 23 for PCs, the game's creators expect it to be available on Microsoft's X-Box 360 and Sony's Playstation 3 in February 2008.

Currently touring 42 HBCU campuses, 13 football classics and a number of homecoming games, Nergyzed made its stop at TSU on Sept. 6, where students had an opportunity to test the game before it hits stands. The 12-week road promotional tour will also be in attendance at this year's Southern Heritage Classic, where TSU will take on the Jackson State University Tigers.

Leon Tillman, a junior agronomy major from Marietta, Ga., said he was excited about the game's potential and enjoyed playing the demo.

"(BCFx) is really good exposure for athletes at HBCUs," he said. "Even though there were a few issues with the game, it was very fun to play. I'm glad the bands got included on the game as well."

The brainchild of Nerjyzed's creative design director, Brian Jackson, BCFx has been nearly two years in the making. Jackson said he came up with concept of the game four years ago and is working to ensure the game will be a yearly-released series, much like its contemporaries NCAA Football and Madden, both released by gaming giant EA Sports.

Jackson said that in addition to typical gameplay, BCFx is to also feature interactive half-time battles of the bands, multiple gaming modes and top-notch graphics, utilizing the Unreal 3.0 animation engine. Other exclusive features and downloadable content is to be released later on.

"We wanted the game to be as realistic as possible, so we held a contest for motion-capture participants," Jackson said. "All of the in-game animations for the band and cheerleaders came from (students) at Southern University. We also went to 30 schools to record different bands playing."

There is also to be a "jukebox" feature which allows gamers to watch the halftime sequences or listen to the bands' music whenever they want.

Ashley Patton, Nerjyzed's marketing director, said the company has a five-year contract with three HBCU athletic conferences-the Southwestern Athletic and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic conferences, and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association-as well as several schools within the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and independent HBCUs like TSU.

"We're making history," Patton said. "(When) our CEO wanted to do a black college football game, we went through the process of getting schools to agree to it.

"The gaming industry is worth $30 billion," Patton continued. "And black consumers outnumber other groups nearly two to one. Yet, there isn't no game out there that truly represents us."

Marcus Cole, a senior therapy major from Memphis, said he appreciated that the game's creators considered the fact that HBCUs are commonly under-represented in multimedia culture, especially in video games.

"It's cool that HBCUs are finally getting recognition," Cole said. "On (EA's) NCAA, we're horrible."

Patton said one of Nerjyzed's aims is to give back to the African American community. They plan to do this by offering internships to current students, she explained.

"We're currently looking for interns," Patton said. "Our staff is composed of individuals from various prestigious HBCUs and we're always looking to give back to our communities."

See the BCFx trailer at here

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