Open Letter to Peter Moore, EA Sports President

[Benz7524]

Hello Mr. Moore,

I want to thank you in advance for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this email. I am writing to discuss with you some serious problems that I see with EA Sports, and the direction that I believe you are attempting to take the company and the brand. EA Sports is a sports gaming brand, it is not a sports brand as you have mentioned in many different interviews. I am a die hard sports fan, and also a sports gamer and I would much rather see EA Sports try to make themselves look more like what I see on TV when I watch sports, than to have EA Sports try and create their own brand image as an actual broadcaster of sports. The reason for this is that EA Sports is not an actual broadcaster of sports, it is a brand name of a company that creates sports games, games that are supposed to re-create what we actually watch on TV. Every EA Sports game has a very "EA Sports look and feel", and it is instantly recognizable as an EA Sports game. However, if you read the forums and listen to what sports gamers want that is not neccessarily a good thing, because what we want is to have a game where it is hard to distinguish between an actual sports broadcast and a game. EA Sports games look like games. It almost seems like noone at EA Sports ever evens watches an actual broadcast of a sporting event, because there are just so many things they are missing. You have great player models, and realistic lighting, and detailed stadiums, but the presentation aspect that makes it seem like more than just a game gets neglected every single year. However, I will state that in 09 for the first time in many years, it does seem like some more emphasis was put on the presentation aspect, with the new pre-snap camera angles and outside stadium shot in Madden, and the inclusion of the presentation cam in Tiger Woods PGA Tour, but unfortunately it still falls so far short of what a next-gen sports game should be. I am not saying that EA Sports puts out bad games, because the games are for the most part entertaining, graphically impressive, and feature excellent gameplay, but there is just so much that could make them better and is almost seems that no one at EA Sports cares about that.

EA Sports, in my opinion is way too wrapped up in itself. When we play an EA Sports game the EA Sports logo is everywhere, but it just doesn't work to give the actual feeling of being "in the game". For instance, when you play madden, it is EA Sports overlays, and the EA Sports backtrack, and the EA Sports halftime show, and it says EA Sports all over the scoreboards, and the game is brought to us by EA Sports. Enough is enough, it just doesn't make sense why a game developer would have to put themselves all over the game, when all it is doing is making the game less and less like a real sports broadcast. Now for instance, if it was an EA Sports games brought to us by ESPN, and ESPN was all over the game, that would be ok since ESPN is an actual broadcaster of sports, it is what people think about when they think about watching sports, and it is also "the worldwide leader in sports". However, that is a different topic that I will touch upon later in this email. So basically I think that sales would increase considerably if you did away with all the EA Sports branding. We all know that it is an EA Sports game that we are playing for many reasons; A)We bought the game, and B)Unless we are playing baseball, you have monopolized the entire sports gaming arena. I think it is an absolute shame that so many people know and discuss how 2k sports could make a better football game if they were given the opportunity, but instead they just have to go with Madden every year, since its the only game in town. People just know that 2k sports wouldn't miss out on the aspects of the game that EA Sports misses out on time after time. A perfect example of this is NFL2k5. This is a game with a cult following and still regarded as one of the best, if not the best football games ever. Their formula for success was very simple with the game, recreate an actual NFL broadcast in a game. They did this through so many different aspects that i couldn't even explain them all in this email. However, if you play the game you will very obviously see what I mean. Also, you will see how 2k sports was not concerned with branding the game as a 2ksports game, and didn't try and give it a unique 2k sports look and feel, they just made it look like an ESPN broadcast of football and even though the game was not perfect, it still attracted a huge fan base because that was what people have been waiting for in sports games. Now almost 5 years later, it seems that we have almost taken steps backwards, and I along with a vast majority of sports gamers know that if 2k sports had been able to continue to make NFL licensed football games that they would be making the best football games we've ever seen by now. It is so frustrating that EA Sports could so easily do what they did, but chooses not too, since they want the game to look like EA Sports and not look like a real broadcast.

Now I am not one to complain about the NFL license deal, since I have read where you said that it was not EA Sports idea, but I am one to complain about the fact that EA Sports has done nothing to make their games more like the 2k sports games, which offer gamers better presentation, a more realistic feel, and the list goes on. I would really love to see EA Sports focus on making a better game and giving gamers what they really want, than just focus on building a brand that is not a real sports brand. EA Sports is most definitely a brand, and it is a good brand, but it should stick to being known as a brand that produces and makes sports games. It should not try and compete with ESPN, but instead embrace ESPN and use that to make themselves become known as a brand that creates the most releastic sports games ever made. Instead though, I read interviews where you are mention how you wont use the ESPN look for your games since they are a competing brand, and you want to establish the EA Sports brand. However, the problem here is that they are not a competing brand. ESPN is the worldwide leader in sports. They broadcast actual sports, and EA Sports is a game developer that should be making games that look like what they are broadcasting. ESPN is a sports brand, EA Sports is a sports gaming brand. Until ESPN starts making videogames, they are not a competing brand. That is why EA Sports games would be so much better if they would just give up on trying to create their own unique EA Sports look and just use the ESPN license that they bought to give the games that ESPN look and feel. Not only would sales increase substantially if you did this, but you would be able to attract 2k sports very substantially fanbase since you really would be putting out the best sports video game that your company is capable of. To have the ESPN license and do nothing with it besides sports tickers at the bottom of the screen and updates from sportscenter is just ridiculous and makes me not want to give EA Sports my business, since it becomes so obvious that they have the license just so other companies cannot. If I want to look at live sports updates I will watch SportsCenter, which just so happens to be on ESPN, not EA Sports. I realize that EA Sports does have segments on ESPN shows that feature their games and the company, but as a long time watcher of SportsCenter, myself and everyone I know agree those segments are by far the most unneccessary and worst aspects of the show. Leave the broadcasting of real sports to ESPN, because they just knows how to do it better, and incorporating that into your game would be a huge step in the right direction for EA Sports.

Next, I read where you said that you wanted to find a way to bring sports fans into sports gaming and you concluded that the way to do this is by making games easier and more like what we play on Wii Sports with less of an emphasis on graphics and more of an emphasis on playability. I cannot explain how backwards this thinking is and how far away from the solution this actually is. The people that like the Wii Sports games are the people that aren't really sports fans. They are the people that play sports games at parties, not the people that play full seasons and know all about the players they are controlling. The true sports fan stay away from the games because they lack any kind of realism, and to be honest are pretty cheesy with the way they are presented. I think the real solution is simple. It really just goes back to what I have been saying this entire email. Sports fans watch alot of sports on TV. If you are targeting sports fans, that aren't yet sports gamers, the way to do this is to show them a game that recreates what they are watching on TV. I watch alot of sports on TV, and I know alot of people that watch alot of sports on TV and we get frustrated every time that we play an EA Sports game because of all the things that they could do to make it more like what we see on TV, but dont. I could go into a very long list of examples, but I don't think it is neccessary since all you have to do is watch a game of football or a golf tournament on TV and all the different things that are missing from what we see when we watch those events on TV to when we play an EA Sports videogame.

In summary, I think the direction that EA Sports is planning on heading needs to change and it needs to change fast or people are eventually going to grow very tired of a company that is so full of itself that it truly believes it can compete with the world wide leader in sports, ESPN. EA Sports cannot compete with ESPN. Everything about the way the ESPN broadcast sports is better than what we see from EA Sports. Not to mention the fact the ESPN is instantly recognizable with every sports fan in the world. You want to attract sports fans to sports games, that is the way to do it. Get over yourself EA Sports, focus on becoming a great sports gaming brand, not a great sports brand. Nobody is ever going to buy an EA Sports shirt instead of a Nike shirt. I wont even play with EA Sports clubs or an EA Sports shirt on in Tiger Woods because it just makes it look fake and even more like just a videogame. Also, Nobody is ever going to watch an EA Sports highlight show, instead of SportsCenter. Be known as the company that makes the best sports games that you can buy, and the games the most closely compare to what we watch on TV. Stop focusing on trying to create your own unique identity in the world of real sports, and just embrace the companies that already have and that do it much, much better. Doing this will help EA Sports to further solidify their identity as the leader in sports gaming, which is all the company should focus on. I cannot argue that EA Sports is a leader in sports gaming, but just ask yourself is that because they put out the best product or is that because they have eliminated the competition. I, along with many other people believe that if 2k sports were given the same licenses that EA Sports has, they would put out far superior sports games because they aren't focused on creating a unique identity for the 2k sports brand with it's own unique look and feel, but instead they are focused on creating a brand that is known for creating the most true to real life presentation in sports games and giving gamers what they truly want, not just selling their games through over-hype and useless new features. EA Sports has a huge fanbase, and it is very obvious by the mass amount of games that EA Sports sell on a yearly basis. However, eventually people are going to see the basketball and baseball games that 2k Sports puts out, and grow to resent EA Sports for not doing the same. A perfect example of this is my brother, who has been a life-long EA Sports gamer. However, after playing the NBA 2k games has become a 2k fan, and grown tired of EA Sports and the way that they present their games. EA Sports is capable of what 2k Sports does, and it becomes more and more frustrating every year that they choose not to. For now it works and EA Sports remains very profitable, but as gamers grow more impatient for EA Sports to put out the kinds of games they are capable of, every year that passes people will grow closer and closer to just giving up on EA Sports games all together. I know that I personally prefer football and golf games, but every year I get closer to just sticking to whatever sports 2k puts out, since even though they may not be my favorite sports, they are just that much better games and much less frustrating to play, since they usually seem to get everything right. I know I am not alone in this thinking, and I urge you to put some serious consideration into what I have said. I know that EA Sports will not be losing any of their exclusive licenses anytime soon, so please just make the games they best they can be by using some of the suggestions that I have given. If you do that, maybe people will once again start to believe that "if it's in the game, it's in the game", because I think they that EA Sports is just relying on it's loyal fanbase who have yet to discover that 2k sports is the company that really is in the game.

[DocHolliday]

Im not sure what that was, but paragraphs are your friend yo.

[spit_bubble]

If you stare long enough at it, you will see Jesus.

[Mason81Ballin!!!]

Quote: Originally Posted by koshi

If you stare long enough at it, you will see Jesus.

If you stare at my defense long enough they disappear!

[baa7]

...I am one to complain about the fact that EA Sports has done nothing to make their games more like the 2k sports games, which offer gamers better presentation, a more realistic feel, and the list goes on.

I'm guessing that sentence won't go over too well with old Petey boy.

[RogueHominid]

Among other things, I teach composition and rhetoric. OP, you might take a look at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It's a masterful piece and could teach you a thing or two about bridging, a key concept for articulating controversial views to a hostile audience. If you can learn to relate to Peter Moore in a more conciliatory way, as King does the contingent of Birmingham clergy, you'll get a lot farther than you will with rhetoric like this.

[CreatineKasey]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Among other things, I teach composition and rhetoric. OP, you might take a look at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It's a masterful piece and could teach you a thing or two about bridging, a key concept for articulating controversial views to a hostile audience. If you can learn to relate to Peter Moore in a more conciliatory way, as King does the contingent of Birmingham clergy, you'll get a lot farther than you will with rhetoric like this.

Haha Trojan! Some constructive writing criticism on a gaming forum... I love it! You know what every single person does when they see a text block like that - click "back". No wonder you're enjoying the Armchair articles! I go to school for Food Science, but enjoy writing.

To the Jesus comment - hilarious! Definitely got a laugh out of me.

[daflyboys]

Wait.... Jesus was from Birmingham? What?