OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

[MJenness]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

Mr. Weber's answers felt like he stole the answers I wanted to hear out of my head. Came off very genuine though, and I'm definitely excited about NCAA/Madden 12 and beyond. ...Until I remembered the 3 weeks later release.

Wow....I can honestly say that this is the first time in a LONG time I am optimistic about the future of Madden!! What immediately turned me off when they made the last team changes were the brash (and quite frankly almost unnatainable) promises. I'd rather hear the truth every time. The games a mess in many areas, and I get the feeling that this guy gets it.

Doubling the gamePLAY team is the only way to right the ship in quick order...not that others areas don't matter, but if gameplay sucks, the rest will, too, because you are never immersed in the game. Put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig.

Am anxious to see what the end results will be.

[GiantBlue76]

I'm still skeptical. We've heard all of the right things from EA reps before. It's always the business guys that talk. When will they get a lead programmer to talk about technical additions? I'll believe it when I see it, and I am not going to expect much from 12. Cam won't even have made an impact to 13 at the earliest. IT really sounds to me that this studio made an absolute mess of the code for Madden over the last 7 years. They are basically struggling to un**** it now, and they have lost a lot of hardcore customers because of it. I love the NFL and I love football. If Madden returns to glory and makes me forget about the great days of playing 2k football, I'm all for it. I just want them to produce something mind blowing as opposed to mind numbing. Here's to hoping Cam Weber can do it.

[RUFFNREADY]

Their (EA) perspective may not be your perspective of the Madden12 title coming out this year.
note: Anybody remember what the dude from NBA ELITE said about the best experience you will ever have playing a basketball title; and look what happened to that game and their crew!!!
EASPORTS has a lot of "Smooth Criminals" working for them. lol

[4solo]

I like the read. Sounded very sincere. Like most have been saying seems as though he gets what the hardcore community is saying. Its just make sense to me; shut up the hardcore fans and give them what they want. (b/c we are the ones that are gonna rip the game apart) Then you can add whatever gimmick you want to attract the casual gamer. In recent years it has been the other way around. Try to attract new casual gamers thru gimmicks b/c the hardcore fans are going to buy the game no matter what. I really think they are going back to the drawing board with that strategy; which is exactly what decreased sales would do. Again I don't expect a major impact until 13.

[D-Hiatus]

Two Thumbs Up!! Nice Interview...very informative!

[209vaughn]

I love this guy Cam Weber!!

He single handidly has me more excited about the NCAA Football franchise then I ever have. I love hearing about doubling the size of the core dev engine team.. I love a 3 year plan, rather than the "give it a coat of paint each year" approach.

MLB The Show and NBA 2k11 are the bench mark in sports gaming, I hope the EA Football games (and FIFA for that matter) can reach those heights. FIFA's core gameplay is the most addicting game i've ever played!

[BezO]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

Without specifics features and planned time of implementation, this reads like the annual EA football interview.

[roadman]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

Without specifics features and planned time of implementation, this reads like the annual EA football interview.

That is something they never do, though, give out specific features and planned time to the public.

[mrmass413]

i liked everything he said plus he played some ball so lets see if he can get those things done

[BezO]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

That is something they never do, though, give out specific features and planned time to the public.

I know. But they've made the same authenticity statement the past few years. I guess a new person saying it is what's getting everyone excited.

As usual, my concern is that they're idea of improved core gameplay is not the same as mine, which is why this means nothing to me until I see/hear the plan. There haven't been any major gameplay improvements since the last few times they've made this claim.

Isn't this the 3rd year of the last 3-year plan?

[Thinking Out Loud]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

Not to come off rude but I really don't understand why people keep stating that Weber's influence will not matter til next year. Everything I have read and seen so far this cycle and even slightly earlier, points towards his vision being all over Madden 12.

Think about it, NCAA/Madden teams increased sharing of core tech announced this dev cycle, NCAA/Madden focusing on core gameplay/presentation, marketing priority being gameplay/presentation by order of info release, scheduled info release dates made available, engaging/talking directly to/about hardcore football gamers, taking a year off in Madden 11 from major franchise/dynasty/Superstar/RTG improvements to save them for Madden 12 (also possibly allowed easier implementation of the "Advance Team" Weber says "we HAVE DONE") and potentially more, that hasn't been revealed yet. All this being mentioned by Weber in multiple interviews and being bore out in early game blogs, video releases and previews but people still say we shouldn't expect his vision until Madden 13, huh?

I guess some people are basing this on the premise that Weber didn't physically arrive at EA Tiburon until early Feb and the core decisions for Madden 12 would have been made much earlier. If that premise is accurate, it contradicts the notion that Weber had little to no impact on Madden 12. The reason being, if EA lays out timely plans for the core decisions to be made each dev cycle, then it makes sense that, EA would have done the same with relation to appointing a GM of Football operations.

So even though Weber didn't arrive from EA Canada until Feb, it would make sense that his interaction with the development of NCAA/Madden 12 began earlier. It's not like they hired him new from another corp, he transferred from EA Canada to EA Tiburon and I honestly don't believe EA just made this decision, to have a GM of their entire football division, on the fly, mid-cycle. If that's the argument some "wait til next year" people are using, I respectful disagree and that would also be a contradiction. If EA is making decisions on the fly, mid cycle, about people in charge of dev cycles, then core decisions for the what goes in the games could be made the same way.

Like I posted before here is what Cam Weber himself said about Madden 12 and in it, he consistently takes joint OWNERSHIP of this title with "we" and "our" not "they" or "the":

"We have a ton of talent within our football group, and with the depth we have, for every Ian Cummings, there are a number of up and coming talented designers that are chomping at the bit to get an opportunity to take a leadership position. Our games are built by strong teams with leadership across all of our game areas. So ultimately, while we are disappointed to see Ian and our other engineer leave our team, we have other talented developers who have taken over their work, and we continue to charge ahead. For Madden NFL 12 specifically, we are in our Alpha period right now, which means our game is feature complete and we are in the final phase of bug fixing and tuning, and we are on track to deliver a strong, fully featured Madden title this year that will be the best one we’ve delivered in years."

This guy seems to know what it takes to make a good football simulation game and what hardcore football gamers expect. So if he, after stating all his collegiate football and general video game credentials, feels confident enough in Madden 12 to say "we are on track to deliver a strong, fully featured Madden title this year that will be the best one we’ve delivered in years.", I think that's a very decisive statement and encouraging, IMO.

[the_EDJ]

Great interview. Cam didn't quite sound like he was being filtered by Marketing which is refreshing (funny coming from a marketing mind like myself) and I really hope that Madden 12 delivers along with a non-lockout NFL season.

[roadman]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

Not to come off rude but I really don't understand why people keep stating that Weber's influence will not matter til next year. Everything I have read and seen so far this cycle and even slightly earlier, points towards his vision being all over Madden 12.

Think about it, NCAA/Madden teams increased sharing of core tech announced this dev cycle, NCAA/Madden focusing on core gameplay/presentation, marketing priority being gameplay/presentation by order of info release, scheduled info release dates made available, engaging/talking directly to/about hardcore football gamers, taking a year off in Madden 11 from major franchise/dynasty/Superstar/RTG improvements to save them for Madden 12 (also possibly allowed easier implementation of the "Advance Team" Weber says "we HAVE DONE") and potentially more, that hasn't been revealed yet. All this being mentioned by Weber in multiple interviews and being bore out in early game blogs, video releases and previews but people still say we shouldn't expect his vision until Madden 13, huh?

I guess some people are basing this on the premise that Weber didn't physically arrive at EA Tiburon until early Feb and the core decisions for Madden 12 would have been made much earlier. If that premise is accurate, it contradicts the notion that Weber had little to no impact on Madden 12. The reason being, if EA lays out timely plans for the core decisions to be made each dev cycle, then it makes sense that, EA would have done the same with relation to appointing a GM of Football operations.

So even though Weber didn't arrive from EA Canada until Feb, it would make sense that his interaction with the development of NCAA/Madden 12 began earlier. It's not like they hired him new from another corp, he transferred from EA Canada to EA Tiburon and I honestly don't believe EA just made this decision, to have a GM of their entire football division, on the fly, mid-cycle. If that's the argument some "wait til next year" people are using, I respectful disagree and that would also be a contradiction. If EA is making decisions on the fly, mid cycle, about people in charge of dev cycles, then core decisions for the what goes in the games could be made the same way.

Like I posted before here is what Cam Weber himself said about Madden 12 and in it, he consistently takes joint OWNERSHIP of this title with "we" and "our" not "they" or "the":

"We have a ton of talent within our football group, and with the depth we have, for every Ian Cummings, there are a number of up and coming talented designers that are chomping at the bit to get an opportunity to take a leadership position. Our games are built by strong teams with leadership across all of our game areas. So ultimately, while we are disappointed to see Ian and our other engineer leave our team, we have other talented developers who have taken over their work, and we continue to charge ahead. For Madden NFL 12 specifically, we are in our Alpha period right now, which means our game is feature complete and we are in the final phase of bug fixing and tuning, and we are on track to deliver a strong, fully featured Madden title this year that will be the best one we’ve delivered in years."

This guy seems to know what it takes to make a good football simulation game and what hardcore football gamers expect. So if he, after stating all his collegiate football and general video game credentials, feels confident enough in Madden 12 to say "we are on track to deliver a strong, fully featured Madden title this year that will be the best one we’ve delivered in years.", I think that's a very decisive statement and encouraging, IMO.

My point in all this is that the developers are setting up ideas for the next Madden in August and September. I don't think they shut down Cam's office in Canada till late October or in November. He didn't physically move down till February. By then, Madden is already nearing the end of Alpha stage. I'm sure the decision for Cam to physically come down came about the time when EA Canada was closing the doors.

If I was the new kid on the block, sure, I would start talking about ownership on the product to make sure everyone knows I'm in control.

We'll just need to agree to disagree, then.

By the way, hard to tell what goes on behind the scenes unless you work for EA.

[Thinking Out Loud]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

My point in all this is that the developers are setting up ideas for the next Madden in August and September. I don't think they shut down Cam's office in Canada till late October or in November. He didn't physically move down till February. By then, Madden is already nearing the end of Alpha stage. I'm sure the decision for Cam to physically come down came about the time when EA Canada was closing the doors.

If I was the new kid on the block, sure, I would start talking about ownership on the product to make sure everyone knows I'm in control.

We'll just need to agree to disagree, then.

By the way, hard to tell what goes on behind the scenes unless you work for EA.

I thought a read a tweet or article from late March 2011 that said the game still had not went Alpha by then but I could be mistaken.

Anyway Roadman, I guess I need to work on doing a better job of clarifying myself in my posts. I will put what I am trying to say like this.

The vision for EA football that Weber is now sharing in multiple interviews seems to fit perfectly with what's been happening since EA announced they would not be adding major offline upgrades for Madden 11. I am not saying that Cam Weber was directly involved then but that the foundation for implementing a new vision for EA football was being laid by EA. I think Weber had some direct influence on Madden 12 even prior to Feb and his physical arrival to be the GM of football, was just another phase of implementing a new vision. Not saying EA planned to appoint Weber all along but that his appointment fit within that plan of a new vision.

That's what I get from all of this but you are right, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at EA. However, I think regardless of if he worked directly on Madden 12 or not, considering his stated vision along with his collegiate football and EA sports title credentials, him making that decisive statement about Madden 12 is encouraging.

Would you agree with that?

[roadman]

Re: OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber

I thought a read a tweet or article from late March 2011 that said the game still had not went Alpha by then but I could be mistaken.

Anyway Roadman, I guess I need to work on doing a better job of clarifying myself in my posts. I will put what I am trying to say like this.

The vision for EA football that Weber is now sharing in multiple interviews seems to fit perfectly with what's been happening since EA announced they would not be adding major offline upgrades for Madden 11. I am not saying that Cam Weber was directly involved then but that the foundation for implementing a new vision for EA football was being laid by EA. I think Weber had some direct influence on Madden 12 even prior to Feb and his physical arrival to be the GM of football, was just another phase of implementing a new vision. Not saying EA planned to appoint Weber all along but that his appointment fit within that plan of a new vision.

That's what I get from all of this but you are right, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at EA. However, I think regardless of if he worked directly on Madden 12 or not, considering his stated vision along with his collegiate football and EA sports title credentials, him making that decisive statement about Madden 12 is encouraging.

Would you agree with that?

It's a breath of fresh air. I'm really excited for the direction of EA with Cam Weber at the controls.

Ian said the same things, but Cam went into more depth.

Ian coined the phrase, "Everything you See on Sundays" and at OS and on Twitter, Ian always said build the game for the hardcore and the casuals will come.

Same message, but more in depth with Cam Weber.

Last June or July before E3, EA explained no added features to franchise mode. They said it takes more than a year to change things up and they were already working on making some features for 12. Before the game came out, I'll never forget that Phil mentioned that you would be able to tell with a noticeable eye the changes for franchise mode for 12. This was all he could say at that time.

I'm just saying that the inner workings for 12 franchise mode were already being discussed in May, June or July last year.

I'm hoping Ian's 3 yr plan works out and I wish the best for Cam Weber.