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blackngoldfan · 02-06-2007, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pared


	And with the resources EA has (I mean they have had the ESPN license for TWO YEARS NOW... what a waste!) there isn't any valid reason they could not have produced a game that should wow even the most hardcore football fan.

"What a waste" is an understatement. When I'm playing Madden, I want to see ESPN news about what's going on in MY franchise, not real life. Hell, I don't play Madden to get sports news. That's what Cable and AM Radio is for. EA buys the rights to ESPN, yet they prefer to use their own choppy EA presentation. EA is like the guy who takes up 2 parking spots so nobody can park next to his Ford Focus.

Spectre · 02-06-2007, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackngoldfan


	"What a waste" is an understatement. When I'm playing Madden, I want to see ESPN news about what's going on in MY franchise, not real life. Hell, I don't play Madden to get sports news. That's what Cable and AM Radio is for. EA buys the rights to ESPN, yet they prefer to use their own choppy EA presentation. EA is like the guy who takes up 2 parking spots so nobody can park next to his Ford Focus.

LOL good analogy

SageInfinite · 02-06-2007, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackngoldfan


	"What a waste" is an understatement. When I'm playing Madden, I want to see ESPN news about what's going on in MY franchise, not real life. Hell, I don't play Madden to get sports news. That's what Cable and AM Radio is for. EA buys the rights to ESPN, yet they prefer to use their own choppy EA presentation. EA is like the guy who takes up 2 parking spots so nobody can park next to his Ford Focus.

LOL, definatly Co-Sign.

DaveDQ · 02-06-2007, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackngoldfan


	"What a waste" is an understatement. When I'm playing Madden, I want to see ESPN news about what's going on in MY franchise, not real life. Hell, I don't play Madden to get sports news. That's what Cable and AM Radio is for. EA buys the rights to ESPN, yet they prefer to use their own choppy EA presentation. EA is like the guy who takes up 2 parking spots so nobody can park next to his Ford Focus.

Well said.

NovaStar · 02-06-2007, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackngoldfan


	"What a waste" is an understatement. When I'm playing Madden, I want to see ESPN news about what's going on in MY franchise, not real life. Hell, I don't play Madden to get sports news. That's what Cable and AM Radio is for. EA buys the rights to ESPN, yet they prefer to use their own choppy EA presentation. EA is like the guy who takes up 2 parking spots so nobody can park next to his Ford Focus.

A very good analogy!

pietasterp · 02-06-2007, 01:57 PM

As everyone here seems to understand all too well, EA is a passion-less business, and as such they care about bottom-line, revenue, cost-per-unit, minimizing overhead, maximizing profit. Nowhere in their philosophy is "excellence in sports gaming". Now, I know 2K and Take Two are in business as well, but you don't generally see EA's higher-ups talking in the same way as we see 2K's people talk about trying to push gaming to be better. If you look at what's been made available as far as interviews, we have EA's Madden head of development talking about how gamers want microtransactions and irrelevant stuff like "we consider Madden to be a premium product" (aka we are selling this for no less than $60 per game), but ultimately EA's statements always boil down to business at heart, with some lip-service to some flashy new feature that ultimately does nothing. Contrast that with 2K's head of dev, and he always seems to be talking about how to make the games better for their fans, getting fan input, and generally having a passion for making a better football game, as opposed to making more money. Theoretically, the two go hand-in-hand, but that clearly hasn't been the case in quite some time...

Ultimately, as everyone here already knows, Madden will do nothing differently next year, or the next, or the next. Which is why I laughed my a#* off when the first "next-gen" Madden came out, and pretty much sucked. Well, welcome to what you'll be playing for the next 5 years, because whichever engine they put out as the initial offering is the one they're going with for the entire console's life cycle. They have never in their company's history built a new engine mid-console-lifecycle. And they won't this time either. If EA knows one thing, it's how to market, and they know 100% their Madden revenues each year are going to be phenomenal, even if they do nothing other than put the previous years' game in a box stamped 2008. It also doesn't help that videogame review sites (IGN, I'm looking in your direction) are utterly gutless when it comes to eviscerating a poor EA product. They have no problem tearing up some other random half-arsed game in their reviews, and almost enjoy it to some extent, but when it comes to subpar Madden, you read their review and it's very lukewarm, but somehow the final score is always >8. Based on what? What, based on the review I just read, leads me to believe the game is good-to-great? Not that reviews matter much for a game like Madden, but it'd be nice if for once a major videogame outlet would call out Madden and roast it for being a half-arsed rehash of the previous year's game.

Anyone that thinks EA will invest any more time/resources into their game is deluding themselves - they've spent all the time/effort that they're going to on the game. Barring some insane drop off in sales, which will happen right about the time the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl (hey, it's my team - I can rip on them if I want), there will be no change to Madden. Ever. I sure wouldn't change a thing if I were EA - I mean, if you had a magical product that you had to invest nothing whatsoever in and it would still make you money hand-over-fist, and all you had to do was keep re-releasing it every year, would you waste more money developing it further? Especially if all your data showed that your gross sales were already maximized? Every dollar EA spends on Madden is a dollar out of their net profit at this point.

Trip Hawkins must be so ticked at what EA has become, at least philosophically. Thank heavens for 2K sports.

Pared · 02-06-2007, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pietasterp


	They have never in their company's history built a new engine mid-console-lifecycle.

Not true. Triple Play Baseball was scrapped after appearing on the PS2 and later rebuilt into MVP Baseball.

Just pointing that out... EA has the resources... the problem is they don't have the desire, as they are afraid of losing their consumer base.

I'm sure they're right at the edge of doing that anyway....

pietasterp · 02-06-2007, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pared


	Not true. Triple Play Baseball was scrapped after appearing on the PS2 and later rebuilt into MVP Baseball. Just pointing that out... EA has the resources... the problem is they don't have the desire, as they are afraid of losing their consumer base. I'm sure they're right at the edge of doing that anyway....

Oops, I stand corrected - you are correct, Pared. Actually, that was a great example of what EA can do if they really felt like their $$$ flow was threatened - MVP was a great re-haul of a tired Triple Play engine. Good lookin' out, Pared.

BTW, love your avatar - Ari Gold is the greatest television character since Homer Simpson. I always use that line, "let's hug it out", and no one ever gets it...

02-06-2007, 01:57 PM	#30
pietasterp All Star OVR: 13 Join Date: Feb 2004	Re: This game will make Madden better... GUARANTEED As everyone here seems to understand all too well, EA is a passion-less business, and as such they care about bottom-line, revenue, cost-per-unit, minimizing overhead, maximizing profit. Nowhere in their philosophy is "excellence in sports gaming". Now, I know 2K and Take Two are in business as well, but you don't generally see EA's higher-ups talking in the same way as we see 2K's people talk about trying to push gaming to be better. If you look at what's been made available as far as interviews, we have EA's Madden head of development talking about how gamers want microtransactions and irrelevant stuff like "we consider Madden to be a premium product" (aka we are selling this for no less than $60 per game), but ultimately EA's statements always boil down to business at heart, with some lip-service to some flashy new feature that ultimately does nothing. Contrast that with 2K's head of dev, and he always seems to be talking about how to make the games better for their fans, getting fan input, and generally having a passion for making a better football game, as opposed to making more money. Theoretically, the two go hand-in-hand, but that clearly hasn't been the case in quite some time... Ultimately, as everyone here already knows, Madden will do nothing differently next year, or the next, or the next. Which is why I laughed my a#* off when the first "next-gen" Madden came out, and pretty much sucked. Well, welcome to what you'll be playing for the next 5 years, because whichever engine they put out as the initial offering is the one they're going with for the entire console's life cycle. They have never in their company's history built a new engine mid-console-lifecycle. And they won't this time either. If EA knows one thing, it's how to market, and they know 100% their Madden revenues each year are going to be phenomenal, even if they do nothing other than put the previous years' game in a box stamped 2008. It also doesn't help that videogame review sites (IGN, I'm looking in your direction) are utterly gutless when it comes to eviscerating a poor EA product. They have no problem tearing up some other random half-arsed game in their reviews, and almost enjoy it to some extent, but when it comes to subpar Madden, you read their review and it's very lukewarm, but somehow the final score is always >8. Based on what? What, based on the review I just read, leads me to believe the game is good-to-great? Not that reviews matter much for a game like Madden, but it'd be nice if for once a major videogame outlet would call out Madden and roast it for being a half-arsed rehash of the previous year's game. Anyone that thinks EA will invest any more time/resources into their game is deluding themselves - they've spent all the time/effort that they're going to on the game. Barring some insane drop off in sales, which will happen right about the time the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl (hey, it's my team - I can rip on them if I want), there will be no change to Madden. Ever. I sure wouldn't change a thing if I were EA - I mean, if you had a magical product that you had to invest nothing whatsoever in and it would still make you money hand-over-fist, and all you had to do was keep re-releasing it every year, would you waste more money developing it further? Especially if all your data showed that your gross sales were already maximized? Every dollar EA spends on Madden is a dollar out of their net profit at this point. Trip Hawkins must be so ticked at what EA has become, at least philosophically. Thank heavens for 2K sports. Last edited by pietasterp; 02-06-2007 at 02:07 PM.

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This game will make Madden better... GUARANTEED