why is everyone treating EA like there the yankees?

[Ghayghay]

Re: why is everyone treating EA like there the yankees?

I have 2k basketball and love it, but I don't think EA marketing NBA Live has anything to do with the creation of the game. They are seperate departments of EA.

I strongly disagree with statement. EA is a very good business because they are really good at combining all their efforts (every department) to a common objective.

EA's goal just like any company is to sell game but it has different strategy. I feel that EA is driven a lot more by the marketing team than any other company (in the sports gaming industry).

Example: EA marketing team: to sell we need a Dunk competition, to sell we need to focus more on the crazy moves of the superstars.. etc

Ea development team: This year guys I've been told we had to implement a dunk contest.. what could we do? and they make great stuff out of it.


2k development team: I think the gameplay would be better with a shotstick, i think player tendancies would reflect more the reality.

2K marketing: Guys our main features this year are the shot stick. Try to sell with that.

While EA outsells 2K because it adds a really cool appealing feature every year, I honestly think 2K will produce better games in the future because they are building more of a complete game instead of adding selling features.

(With that said, I think Live is a really FUN game even if I don't see myself playing it 20 hours a week for one year like I can do with 2K more sim game.)

Plz.. don't flame me.. I am giving my opinion!

[roadman]

Re: why is everyone treating EA like there the yankees?

I think each company goes in each year and says we are going to try to make the best game we can for all audiances.

Video gaming, the audiances are wide, from my 10 year old son on up. All my 10 year old wants is a game that looks similiar to the football, baseball and basketball he see's in person or on TV.

I started him playing HH2003 when he was 6 years old. He played on rookie until the next version came out. This did help him understand who the players are/were, etc....... He would cry if he started losing.

This reminds me alot of the back and forth of HH vs Triple Play. Triple Play was a glorified HR derby fest, where HH was the sim beauty on PC of a smaller company. However, Triple Play would always outsell HH because of the mass market. Look what happened to HH, it couldn't compete with Triple Play/MVP anymore.

I think anyone that thinks that a sports game is tuned to perfection right out of the box is absurd. Maybe "Live" does cater do a different audiance, but I'm sure toying with sliders and getting them just right will make it very sim like.

I helped develop cpu vs cpu sliders in Madden to get the stats very close to the sim engine and nfl stats. It took well over 200 games and one month from the release date to perfect this.

I don't think it matters if it's a "sim game and feels very close to realism" or a fun arcadey game that you messed around with for awhile.

The ultimate goal of "older players" (older than 10) is to have a game that is as close to sim as you can get. I don't think it matters how long it takes to achieve that with any sports game.

I'm stuck with Live as we don't have one of those console thingy's. Being stuck with Live isn't a bad thing either, as I know I will get it as close to a sim as I can. If I had a console, I would try 2k6 because I love sports and sports video gaming.

[Cardot]

Re: why is everyone treating EA like there the yankees?

What EA does for their business purposes makes great sense, and if you are a fan of wall street, you love their initiative. But if you are a fan of sports gaming, you should hate what they are doing with a passion.

Great post Kbomber.

While I don't hate EA, I must admit that I have become a bit disgruntled over the last few years. I was a huge fan in the mid 90's, but it recent years they have seemed more interested in EA Trax and showcasing how many mega stars they can get to promote the product than actually improving their games.

The games are still good, but I don't think they are as good as they could be. EA knows that they have alot of brand recognition and loyalty, and I wonder if it may impact their efforts?

[gooberstabone]

Re: why is everyone treating EA like there the yankees?

What EA does for their business purposes makes great sense, and if you are a fan of wall street, you love their initiative. But if you are a fan of sports gaming, you should hate what they are doing with a passion.

I don't see how anyone can disagree with this.

I tend to look for companies who are actively trying to win my dollars through innovation. Those are the companies that are showing me that they want my business. They are out there trying something new, trying to make a difference.

I feel the same way. INNOVATE, or don't charge me fifty bucks!