Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[JBH3]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I don't see this as a bad thing to be honest.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Game tester would be a different title, so I'm correct on the former.

On the latter, someone can fact-check me on this but I'm pretty sure he graduated with a degree in CS from the University of Tennessee, and that he used the game tester position as an 'in' into EA.

I don't know what his major was, but he was offered a game tester position before graduating college. A lot of the guys on the development team don't have degrees in a related field.

I don't see this as a bad thing to be honest.

It's either a great thing, or it won't matter. It certainly can't hurt. Ian wasn't new; he was on the development team since the very beginning of this generation of consoles.

[at23steelers]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I don't think Ian did a fantastic job, but most of us are upset, because we don't know what the future brings. IMO, Ian tried his best and wanted only SIM things added. He talked to the community a lot as well. I wish it was Donny Moore over Ian leaving, but what can you do? I think the marketing team is what controls madden and decides almost all the features in the game. I think Ian got tired of that and left. Hopefully, they fire the marketing people and promote someone like Phil to pick up where they left off.

[Garrett67]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I don't know what his major was, but he was offered a game tester position before graduating college. A lot of the guys on the development team don't have degrees in a related field.

...and look at Madden. Perhaps they should start hiring people with knowledge .

[Bondgirl0072]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Change is good. Shaking things up can't do anything but help this franchise.


How long did it take for those people say they missed David Ortiz ?

I second this. It is still surprising though.

[Bgamer90]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I will definitely miss Ian. While Madden 11 wasn't a big step from 10 imo, Ian did make Madden get up to a much faster speed compared to how things were before. Ian had a three year vision starting with Madden 10. Looking forward to seeing if that vision comes true w/ Madden 12 (Ian's Swan Song).

Also, I don't accurately know how things here on OS were when David Ortiz was the producer of Madden but it seems to me like people criticized Ian more than David (during Madden 06-09). While Ian handled things better than I would have, I'm pretty sure it got to him. Working 80-100 hours weeks just to get called "lazy" can't be fun. It did obviously ruin the amount of communication we use to have with him here on OS. That communication though did make ones use Ian as a scapegoat for certain things.

But anyways, the new place he's going to will probably be a lot less stressful on him. I wish him the best.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I'd say 1-2 years before I saw people talking about how Ortiz was onto something with Madden 08 .

I'm sorry; I don't believe you. To this day, people blame Ortiz when trying to cut Ian some slack.

[Bgamer90]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

...and look at Madden. Perhaps they should start hiring people with degrees and knowledge instead of hiring internet forum posters because they are suck asses.

Sorry but its true.

:

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

:

Somebody had to say it.

[Hooe]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I don't know what his major was, but he was offered a game tester position before graduating college. A lot of the guys on the development team don't have degrees in a related field.

You're right on with this.

And Google says he started as software engineering but switched his major to finance. It is truly scary how easily I found that out.

[coogrfan]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Do they? Phase/Cycle/Year 2-3, you know have an understanding of things, improve on what you already have.

I think most would agree that they have done so. Madden 11 was light years ahead of the abominations that were Madden 06-07 (360).

I'm sorry, I cannot and will not cut slack for EA for what Madden has and hasn't become. Especially when I look at games like CH2K7&8, NBA2K7,8,&11, TheShow, Fifa, etc.

I'm not cutting EA slack. I'm saying that most of the problems with the game now are due to things that occurred when EA was creating the first next-gen Madden. Some of those things were EA's fault, while others were beyond their control.

As I've stated a couple of times in other threads, NBA 2k is a perfect example of how EA should have handled the leap to next gen. Instead of creating a new game from scratch VC chose to take the previous gen version, give it a graphical makeover, and port it to the 360. The result was a title that proved to be one of the best of the 360 launch titles and a solid foundation for future development.

One can't help but wonder where the Madden/NCAA series might be today if EA hadn't decided to attempt to build a new football engine from the ground up.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[TheShizNo1]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

I think most would agree that they have done so. Madden 11 was light years ahead of the abominations that were Madden 06-07 (360).

True. Like we've agreed on, I would expect 11 to be better than what it is. I feel I should be anticipating Madden thinking "this may be one of the best football games ever." and not "man, I hope they got it right this year."

[GiantBlue76]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Do they? Phase/Cycle/Year 2-3, you know have an understanding of things, improve on what you already have. I'm sorry, I cannot and will not cut slack for EA for what Madden has and hasn't become. Especially when I look at games like CH2K7&8, NBA2K7,8,&11, TheShow, Fifa, etc.

This is 100% correct.

[Hooe]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Somebody had to say it.

No, nobody had to say that.

Ian Cummings worked his way up the company ladder at EA like anyone else in a corporate situation, and if I say so in his time as the lead guy for the Madden games he and the rest of his team did a bang-up job making a fun video game.

It's simply the popular opinion on this forum to bash Madden and bash anyone associated with Madden at any given point in time, regardless of facts or respect for the opinions and feelings of anyone else.

It's what making these forums insufferable.

[Garrett67]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

No, nobody had to say that.

Ian Cummings worked his way up the company ladder at EA like anyone else in a corporate situation, and if I say so in his time as the lead guy for the Madden games he did a bang-up job making a fun video game.

It's simply the popular opinion on this forum to bash Madden and bash anyone associated with Madden at any given point in time, regardless of facts or respect for the opinions and feelings of anyone else.

It's what making these forums insufferable.

I wasn't talking about Ian, I like Ian.