Response from Peter Moore, EA Sports President

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Good news: 99% of ALL additions and subtractions to Madden 10 are determined by me and my team. Bad news: There are very few exceptions that go much higher than us...and ESPN is kind of one of those. It's...well...very complicated...and totally out of my control...so I focus on what we can do irrespective of that decision making process. I think Peter is dead on in his response (though I've never even thought of it)...as a business it makes sense to want EA Sports to be big enough to stand on it's own in the case that a license falls out. The thing is, how we use EA logos and such throughout our game all falls to us...we don't have Peter breathing down our necks making sure the logo is 120 pixels tall and always displayed or anything like that. Also, everyone should know that it's very important to our brand and business that a person walking by a display kiosk can glance at our game and know right away that a.) it's Madden and b.) it's EA Sports. That's why you'll see things like branded watermarks and tickers. I can just tell all of you that presentation is basically my biggest "pet area" (outside of gameplay of course). There is so much that can be done to improve presentation without making the game feel like it was actually made by ESPN and not by EA Sports...that debate will never end so I'm just going to make as many advancements as possible in giving you an amazing broadcast presentation...irrespective of the art we end up putting up on the screen.

I honestly think that if you get the presentation up to the level you say you're aiming to, then nobody will care what it's branded as. I think the only reason people keep bringing up ESPN licensing is that it was used so well in your former competition's game and has been somewhat of a let down with EA considering all the early hype it was given.

You could slap "brought to you by Ian's pee" all over the game and I'll be good with it as long as that phrase is preceded by halftime shows, highlights, weekly wrapups, great cutscenes, sideline reports, realistic challenges, etc, etc.

In any case, I think we're all rooting for you to deliver on your lofty goals

[speedkills]

Since you got a response from Peter Moore can you ask if him if he can replace Tiburon with a competent developer for their football franchises? If he's still got connections with 2K Sports maybe he can pull some strings.

[sketch22]

Quote: Originally Posted by speedkills

Since you got a response from Peter Moore can you ask if him if he can replace Tiburon with a competent developer for their football franchises? If he's still got connections with 2K Sports maybe he can pull some strings.

That just isn't necessary at all. I don't understand why people keep trashing on Tiburon when they really seem to be making an effort.

[jvaccaro]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

...as a business it makes sense to want EA Sports to be big enough to stand on it's own in the case that a license falls out. The thing is, how we use EA logos and such throughout our game all falls to us...we don't have Peter breathing down our necks making sure the logo is 120 pixels tall and always displayed or anything like that.

^^ Sweet Jebus -- definitely time to make those EA logos smaller and much less frequent!

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Also, everyone should know that it's very important to our brand and business that a person walking by a display kiosk can glance at our game and know right away that a.) it's Madden and b.) it's EA Sports.

^^ I don't know how this could EVER be in question... Everybody and their uncle knows perfectly well what game it is by second number two. There's never any doubt at all, since it is the only NFL game.

Maybe the devs just doesn't realize it, but it absolutely kills the replay-ability of the game for me when I have to hear the announcer interrupt an already choppy broadcast to remind me "this game is brought to you by EA sports" every three plays.

[RGiles36]

Quote: Originally Posted by jvaccaro

Maybe the devs just doesn't realize it, but it absolutely kills the replay-ability of the game for me when I have to hear the announcer interrupt an already choppy broadcast to remind me "this game is brought to you by EA sports" every three plays.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

I can just tell all of you that presentation is basically my biggest "pet area" (outside of gameplay of course). There is so much that can be done to improve presentation without making the game feel like it was actually made by ESPN and not by EA Sports...that debate will never end so I'm just going to make as many advancements as possible in giving you an amazing broadcast presentation...irrespective of the art we end up putting up on the screen.

Looking forward to some detail.

Are you all still looking to go "beyond" tv broadcasts or can we expect something similar to what we'd see on Sunday's?

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Peter Moore

"Hi, Thanks so much for taking the time to write your interesting and thoughtful perspective on our brands and it’s positioning. It is difficult for me to provide you with a lot of detail in response to your questions, as much of what we do is tied to league licenses or our broadcaster (ESPN) agreements. I would obviously vehemently disagree with many of your comments on the capabilities of our teams and the methods we have used to build the EA SPORTS brand. Our goal has always been for the EA SPORTS brand to be a standalone complement to our league deals (as it was with 2K Sports when I began to build it while at Sega), so that you built equity into the business that could withstand license losses and additions. Sorry I can’t get into this with you in open email, but I do truly appreciate your input and feedback, and thank you again for taking the time to contact me with your thoughts…" Cheers, Peter

Yes, they've built the EA Sports brand well in the real world, but in the game of Madden it's been built poorly. In Madden 09, the best they came up with was having the EA logo slapped on scorecard's multiple times on the same scorecard, and having Tom Hammond reminds us over and over again that the game was "brought to you by EA Sports". So he really didn't address the undeniable deficiency of presentation in Madden... but did we really expect a different response? A guy in his position is very rarely going to say "Yeah, our presentation sucks. Please forgive us, we'll do better... I promise!"

And seriously, just how deeply do we really think Peter Moore is into the game of Madden, or even understands/or is aware of all of the many issues? Most of the stuff we talk about, the majority of buyers don't even realize or care about. Peter probably represents the majority rather than the minority that we represent.

But you know what? None of that matters. The best leaders are the ones that listen and have the ability to delegate change in need areas, whether they understand it all or not. This won't ultimately be up to Peter Moore but up to the leaders of Team Madden and I believe they can get it done. I feel about Maden 09 the same way I felt about 07 in many ways. 09 is a game that just needs refinement in some key areas and they appear to be very doable. I just hope that at this same point we don't wind up veering way off course like we did with 08. That's my greatest concern and a scenario that would finally shut me down on Madden for the rest of this generation.

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

Looking forward to some detail. Are you all still looking to go "beyond" tv broadcasts or can we expect something similar to what we'd see on Sunday's?

There are some "beyond" things I want to see stay, like the pre-play camera work which was really cool, but I'd also like to see it mixed in with traditional camera work. That would really add a lot of spontaneity to it. Maybe even having options to control it's frequency would be something to explore since everybody wants things to be a lot more custom (myself included).

Auto-Replays need to be overhauled to chiefly include field level views that stay close to the action. And of course with post-play, player reactions need a fresh start and zoom-away cameras need to be killed and left with an R.I.P. sign...