Browse by Tags
All Tags »
Activision-Blizzard (
RSS)
Posted
Mar 14 2008, 08:38 PM
Back home in the Bay Area after a busy week in Vancouver
and Orlando. Please rest assured that the feedback that is
gathering in the threads is being passed on to the development
teams, and while I can offer no guarantees that we can
implement all of these features that you call out (or agree
with them within the context of the game design), we hear
you loud and clear and will continue to listen and learn
from you all.
While I was in the air on Friday, a
firestorm was quickly erupting over a front page story that
MCV, a UK-based interactive entertainment publication, ran,
purporting to be a synopsis of an interview I conducted
earlier in the week regarding EA SPORTS. To set the scene,
last weekend I received a list of questions to answer via
email for an executive Q&A interview – the type of
format you see every day on-line and on web sites. Eager to
continue to tell what I believe is the increasingly-
positive story of the label’s growth plans over the next
few years, we quickly agreed to participate and provided
comprehensive answers to the questions. Now remember, this is
a specific Q&A format, whereby they ask questions of
their choosing, and I answer back.
What was actually
published was a feature story, where the answers, with no
context of the questions posed, were cobbled together,
sensationalized, and then splashed on the front page under the
banner of “No Moore Mr. Nice Guy”. Most egregious of all
was the blatant fabrication of a quote from me, used as a
sub-heading, and in quotation marks, of “Our games are as
popular as ever. This is an area where Activision Blizzard
really can’t compete with us”. The journalist took two of
my answers to two completely separate and unrelated questions,
and stitched them together under the guise of a complete
and direct quote. Bush league, sloppy, unprofessional, call it
what you will – it breaks every rule of journalistic
integrity (and no, before you say it, that’s not an oxymoron –
lots of tremendous journalists in our industry).
Now, I’ve done hundreds upon hundreds of interviews.
I enjoy them as intellectual challenges, knowing full well
that the person on the other end of the recording device has a
job to do, and often that is get me to say something that
will provide an attention-grabbing headline. Being a Brit,
I also understand the culture of tabloid journalism –
sensationalism, screaming, hyperbole-laden headlines, short on
actual depth and substance. I have been “paraphrased” and
taken completely out of context on several occasions, all
in the name of grabbing eyeballs for the story. I usually
blame myself for slipping up, usually because I gave too
detailed or long an answer to a simple question, thus “
breaking into jail” as Charlotte Stuyvenberg, head of
marketing communications at Xbox, used to describe it as
she correctly scolded me on such instances. But on this
occasion…not guilty.
Fortunately, the publisher of
MCV, Stuart Dinsey, is one of the most highly-respected
journalists in our industry, and someone that I have held
in the highest regard during my numerous dealings with him
over the years. Stuart was attending GDC and out of touch with
his team back in the UK. Upon learning of this situation,
Stuart responded immediately and posted the following
apology today on their website (
http://www.mcvuk.
com/news/29725/That-Peter-Moore-story), for which I am
both relieved and grateful. Let me say, for the record, that I
have nothing but the greatest respect for Activision-
Blizzard, their combined executive staff, and their incredible
collection of franchises, and that it pains me enormously
that my out-of-context comments were seen as a slight on their
ability to compete vigorously in our industry.
One thing I should note is that MCV also
described me as a “super-confident exec”, and for that I
appreciate the compliment. Weeks like the one I just had
meeting with our teams at both EA Canada and Tiburon do in
fact make me confident. I’m confident in our vision, I’m
confident in the people on our team that are driven to
create the best sports games in the world, and I’m
especially confident in the steps we’re taking to become
the leading sports entertainment brand in the world. EA
created the sports genre in videogames, and we have very
aggressive plans to continue to improve and expand the EA
SPORTS brand in places that I don’t think Activision-
Blizzard competes in. You’ll never catch me bashful about
that.
In closing, many of you have seen the news of
EA’s proposal to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software. I
encourage you to visit
http:
//eatake2.com for all the latest information on this.
- Peter