The ever-growing world of gaming is nothing new to Jacqueline Beauchamp, CEO of Nerjyzed Entertainment.
As a former multimedia entertainment manager at Motorola, Beauchamp recognized a lack of diversity amongst the video game industry.
“There was a void from a diversity standpoint and someone needed to fill it. After saying that for so long, I realized that someone was me,” said Beauchamp.
She took matters into her own hands and fused animation with the Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) sports experience. Although the gaming industry has shifted from sports games to music-based games, Beauchamp saw a huge segment of the market that was still not being served.
In creating Black College Football Xperience (BCFx): The Doug Williams Edition, Nerjyzed Entertainment’s creative design director Brian Jackson states he visited and/or reached out to every HBCU head coach, athletic director, band director and cheerleading coach to make sure each school was depicted correctly in the game.
“We also made sure the schools actually played the way they do in real life. If a team plays a shotgun 5-wide receiver offense in real life, they’ll run a shotgun 5-wide receiver offense in our game,” said Jackson. For BCFx, it’s all about authenticity.
The game is fundamentally about football, yet BCFx combines several games into one. Not only do you have a fun football game, but one of the key aspects of the HBCU culture – the halftime show. Each school featured has a halftime show.
When you see Southern University’s band or Grambling State University’s band, they not only sound like the original band, but look exactly as they would on game day.
“We actually visited each band and recorded live the bands playing their songs,” said Jackson. “When you hear University of Arkansas Pine Bluff playing ‘Talkin’ Out the Side of Your Neck,’ that’s their rendition of the song.”
There’s also a feature called the Drumline Challenge where gamers can play along with the band. Players can also play “Classic” games such as the Bayou Classic or Magic City Classic.
Jackson is primarily enthused about the HBCU legacy museum. BCFx players are able to learn facts about the featured schools such as where Alabama A&M is located or that arguably the two greatest offensive players in the NFL came from HBCUs.
As Nerjyzed Entertainment’s inaugural college football video game, Beauchamp thought it was only fitting to feature Doug Williams on the cover. Williams was the first Black quarterback to start, win and be named MVP in a Super Bowl. Williams is a Grambling State graduate.
This game is for all ages and is only compatable for Xbox systems. Priced at $39.99, BCFx can be found at GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Fry’s Home Electronics and Amazon.com.
Nerjyzed Entertainment plans to produce additional video games (sports, rhythm based, military war craft, and educational) in the future including another version of BCFx. They are also looking to expand their games to various gaming systems.
For more information visit www.bcfxgame.com or www.nerjyzed.com.
Xbox facts
and stats
There are more than 20 million Xbox LIVE active members worldwide, making the Xbox LIVE community larger than any city in the world and larger than any satellite provider.
In the last year, on average Xbox has added a population larger than the city of Seattle to Xbox LIVE each month.
In its 6-year history, Xbox LIVE members have spent nearly 15 billion hours on Xbox LIVE. That’s almost 7 million hours per day, or more than two hours for every person on the planet.
One Xbox LIVE account is created every five seconds.
Since the launch of the New Xbox Experience, the pace of video marketplace downloads has more than doubled.
Xbox 360 is the first and only console to partner with industry giant, Netflix, to bring 17,000 feature films and television shows to the living room.
Nearly 76 million songs/tracks for music games like “Guitar Hero” from Activision, Microsoft Game Studios’ “Lips” and “Rock Band” from MTV Games, among others, have been downloaded through Xbox LIVE.
Since the launch of the New Xbox Experience and Avatars, members have changed their Avatar’s clothes nearly 150 million times, and have spent more than 10 million hours in the Avatar editor.
