Welcome to Peter Moore's Official Blog

I was disappointed to hear the news today that Tiger Woods is going to have to undergo season-ending knee surgery.  But what an incredibly courageous effort it was by an unbelievable athlete and a captivating weekend of U.S. Open golf.  Wow – Tiger never ceases to amaze us.  

Tiger’s been an incredible partner with EA SPORTS for years now and we wish him all the best and a healthy recovery.  I guess the good news is that there’s still one place fans will be able to see Tiger playing the rest of the year – on the virtual links of EA SPORTS Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 when it hits stores the end of August.

I think we better get Tiger an advance copy of the game now that he’s going to have more free time on his hands…

Several weeks ago, we announced that we would not be shipping Madden on the PC this year.  As I mentioned then, and I will re-iterate today, the PC platform presents serious business challenges to us in the sports category.  Love it or hate it, that’s the reality.  I can’t make you like the decision, but nevertheless it’s a hard decision we had to make.

While I have no announcements for today, we are listening to the concerns of the fans and hope to have an announcement soon about some steps we’re taking on Madden in particular that we hope will appeal to some of the fans this fall.

In the last week or so, many of you have asked for clarification as to what our intentions are this year for the PC platform specifically.

Let me clearly state our plans: This year, we plan to ship FIFA and NHL on the PC.  FIFA Manager will also be available in some territories.

This year, we don’t plan to ship Madden, NCAA Football, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, or NBA LIVE for the PC platform.

We continue to explore new ideas for reinvigorating the PC platform for sports.  We have exciting projects taking place right now in Asia with NBA STREET and FIFA on the PC, with a strong focus on the on-line experience.  We’re learning from this and will keep you posted on new developments and how we think we can bring sports to the PC in a way that creates exciting game experiences and will be sound business decisions.

Contrary to some of the passionate posts on this blog, we have no intention to abandon the PC as a sports gaming platform. Rather, we are taking this time to re-define the way we bring you compelling experiences while at the same time making sure we make the appropriate and necessary investments for the future. I ask for your patience, understanding, and openness to new and unique ideas…

Peter
 

We started to get some calls from the analyst community asking if we had pushed back the launch of NBA LIVE 09. Puzzled, we did a quick web search and found the following story from the Serious Sports News Network:

http://www.serioussportsnewsnetwork.com/2008/06/electronic-arts-announces-recall-delayed-release-of-nba-live-09.html

I don’t know what is funnier – the writing or the fact that intelligent people took it seriously. To be clear, the game is hitting every milestone and it's making big steps towards where we all want it to be…but enjoy this nonetheless.
 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been captivated by the NBA Finals this year in a way that I haven’t been in years.  There’s no Cinderella teams this year, no surprises.  The Celtics and Lakers are the two best teams in the league, period, and both playing at their peaks.  Even the best players are going to have their ups and downs in a seven game series (Kobe in Game 1, Pierce in Game 3), but what you see in basketball in perhaps more than any other sport is how hard it can be being number 1.  I marvel at how Kobe and Pierce can consistently handle the double and triple teams, the constant pressure defense and the scrutiny.  Yet, when all eyes are on them and expectations are at a climax they continue to deliver. It also underscores the importance of home court advantage. Whether it is the proximity of the fans to the action or the controlled indoor environment, it always seems to me that playing at home is a greater advantage in basketball than just about any other sport…particularly in the playoffs.

As any business does, we’ve been completing our annual performance reviews the past few weeks as well as setting objectives and strategic priorities for the year ahead.  I find sports always serve as a great metaphor, and so as I was watching the game last night and reviewing our upcoming plans, I thought about what it takes to be on top, to stay on top and to constantly be in the crosshairs of the rest of your industry.  

Some people don’t like the heat.  I actually love it, and it’s been inspiring for me to see that our teams here do as well.  Our teams are talented, passionate and motivated.   It’s a changing marketplace and they’re responding to the demands of our consumers by developing some incredible products for the season ahead.  You’d expect nothing less from EA SPORTS, especially when you look at the successes of 2007.  To set the record VERY straight (despite what you might have read to the contrary in the last day or so…), we had:

•    Four EA SPORTS titles get Sports Game of the Year nods by various outlets, including FIFA, NCAA Football, Madden and NHL.  Of course NHL was consensus best in class, as I mentioned a few days ago.  Named sports game of the year by seven publications.  No one comes close to that.
•    Three EA SPORTS titles in the overall industry top 20.  It was a great year for videogames, and Madden was No. 1 in sports and No. 4 overall.  
•    Seven platinum titles (more than one million units sold).

I read the forums, I read your posts on my blog, and we do extensive research and testing to deliver the best sports games on the market each year.  We care what you say, we respond as much as we possibly can, and so I’m not surprised that early NASCAR reviews are very positive and that our Madden and NCAA FB community event recently had folks applauding the efforts coming out of Tiburon (more on that to come, BP).  I’m not surprised that NBA LIVE, which jumped 15 points in review scores a year ago, has the most ground-breaking feature from our lineup this year and we’ll unveil it next month at E3.  And I’ll say with supreme confidence that the future couldn’t be brighter for two of our most critically acclaimed products from a year ago – FIFA and NHL.  

We’re never satisfied.  There’s always more we can do.  It’s what we love about our business.  I hate to sound like a cheerleader, but the facts are the facts.  And I don’t expect them to change any time soon.  We’re hitting this season in terms of quality and innovation stronger than we ever have at EA SPORTS.  If I’m wrong, you’ll see me sporting a new tattoo  - maybe a competitor’s logo?

Just coming off a great weekend in sports, and I’m anxious for an even bigger week ahead for us here at EA SPORTS.

 

A couple of things at the top of my list with the summer now upon us.

 

•         This morning we revealed the first news of the year about NHL 09.  There are a lot of eyes on this franchise after it was so highly acclaimed a year ago, winning seven awards for sports game of the year.  Calgary Flames defenseman  Dion Phaneuf is going to be on the cover of the game across most territories and everything I’ve seen to date on NHL tells me this is going to be another great year. This franchise is often overlooked in the bigger scheme of our NFL, FIFA and NBA titles, but over the past couple of years it has really been one of our most innovative titles. The team, based out of our Vancouver studio, is among our most talented and culturally-connected, with a number of current and former players involved with the development process. From what I have already seen, we are on track to further push the innovation bar upwards. Back in the mid-nineties, some of you will remember that NHL titles were vying for #1 or #2 spots in the overall sports genre, not because the sport was more popular than football or basketball, but because the game play and controls were just so *** good.  While we may never see hockey titles challenge for the top spot again anytime soon, it won’t be for the lack of quality or innovation.

•         NASCAR 09 hits stores this week, right in time for Father’s Day and officially kicking off our EA SPORTS “season”.  While we’ve had a number of game launches since I came to EA, this one stands out because it’s really the first game I’ve seen right from the early stages of development  through final. You’re going to see a few elements in the game that tie to key themes you may have heard me talk about over the past 10 months that are very important to me.

o   First is how the team focused on the approachability of the game. As you have heard me often comment, at times our games can be just too hard, and NASCAR could be as guilty as any in that regard. The sport of NASCAR itself  is in the midst of aggressively attempting to broaden its audience beyond the rabid but regional fan-base it typically enjoys. I must admit this was not a title I would have previously readily picked up and played, but with 09, the levels of approachability and accessibility immediately draws me into the game, and I am having fun almost immediately.  From the minute you boot up the game, Jeff Gordon guides you through all the major features and is there with you as a guide and mentor.

 

o   NASCAR also launches with a new online customization tool called Paint Booth.  It’s a fun feature because of the level of in-game personalization it provides, but I’m most excited because it’s the first new in-game feature to be housed on our new EA SPORTS World portal.  We’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years trying to build the foundation for the world’s leading sports gaming community.  We still have a long way to go, but this week our new site goes live and begins extending the EA SPORTS gaming experience by allowing fans to  compare their records via leader boards, you can track your in-game stats or upload videos, read blogs, etc.  You can do the same thing with our soccer/football games at www.eafootballworld.com and we’re seeing some strong traffic and responses already.

 

 

On a final note, just watched the Dutch give the Italians the lesson of their footballing lives. Although Van Nistelrooy was offside by a country mile for the first goal, the final result was nothing less than the Dutch deserved and puts the Italians in a real hole in their group already. Oh, and Go Celtics…