Credit: ea.com

For me, especially when I was a kid, my offseason interests would turn to video games from time to time. I would play the usual, extremely popular games that came out over the years, but because of my interest in skiing and winter sports, I would always end up with a snowboarding game. There were a few to choose from over the years, but my favorite series was always SSX.

That brings us to this article that I recently came across. It's an overview of EA Sports BIG, which was an offshoot of Electronic Arts intended to bring games featuring action sports, or made into action sports if they weren't, to the market. Of course, the SSX series was their flagship.

It's an interesting read, not only if you're a gamer, but enjoy looking at the business end of game development. EA Sports BIG, like many other labels of the past, was shut down just over a decade ago, but the legend lives on. I mean, it's games like SSX that inspire some of the tricks we see in real life nowadays.

The Flamboyant Brilliance of EA Sports BIG

In terms of pure, infectious energy, few games are as thrilling as SSX Tricky. Developed by EA Canada and first released on PlayStation 2 in 2001, this outlandish, larger-than-life snowboarding game was notable for its colourful characters, vibrant visuals, gravity-defying tricks, and that impossibly cool remix of...