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Posted
Jun 10 2009, 11:07 AM
I'm back from a great week at E3 in Los Angeles and pleased to see the feedback we got on our product lineup at the show. As you might have seen this week, Madden NFL 10 won The Technical Achievement - Software Award from G4 and Sports Game of the Show 1Up. Fight Night Round 4 also received Best Sports Game of the Show from G4.
We went from workouts to tap-outs last Monday at EA's press conference - with news about EA SPORTS Active, a great live demo of Fight Night Round 4, and of course the announcement of EA SPORTS MMA in development at Tiburon. With top fighters and fighting styles from around the world, and our typical authenticity to the real sport, I'm telling you this will be the most intense MMA game to date.
It was also quite a thrill to spend time with Pete Sampras as part of our Grand Slam Tennis demo. Pete was a blast onstage, and even more fun down in the Green Room, where he and Alison Sweeney battled it out on Grand Slam Tennis for a good hour before the show started. Once Pistol Pete got the hang of the Wii Motion Plus controls, that serve and volley game kicked in for him just like the old days...
When you add in our announcements of TeamBuilder in NCAA Football (which has now spawned more than 55,000 created teams since last Monday) and Online Franchise in Madden, I think you got a good sense why I'm so excited about this year's new games and think fans will share my optimism when they get their hands on our new titles over the coming months. And of course we're off to a great start with the recent launch of EA SPORTS Active and this week's Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR launches. 2009 is shaping up to be a great year for EA SPORTS, driven in no small part by the feedback we receive from you our core customers.
Finally, I was glad to be a part of the "new and improved E3", a show that felt like it had the excitement of years past and provided a perfect platform for showcasing the great work of this industry without the unmanageable crowds and booths that had begun to overrun the show and left us with the underwhelming E3s of the past two years. Both Sony and Microsoft shared exciting news about their respective motion control technologies, something that we at EA SPORTS believe can be a major driving force towards mass market adoption.
Cheers,
Peter
Posted
Jun 06 2009, 04:01 PM
I hope everyone enjoyed following all the news of E3 this week. I’m just trying to catch my breath (and looking forward to catching up on my sleep) from what I think was a great week in Los Angeles, but in the meantime I wanted to quickly touch on one of our many announcements last week – the re-launch of EASPORTS.com. We’ve been talking a lot over the past few months about the potential of online, whether to allow EA SPORTS fans to enjoy fresh, new content, go head to head in competitive matches or even just get in touch with us to voice their opinions or problems. I’m proud to say that our announcement at E3 is an important next step in harnessing all the potential of our connected experiences. If you missed the EA press conference where these and a number of other announcements (MMA, for example) were made, you can view the archived video here.
The new website is in Beta , as was our EA SPORTS World community site before it. Why? Simply put, we wanted to share it with you before it was 100% complete – and so you can get a taste for the things to come and keep coming back to find out more. I’m not going to spoil any surprises, but I do want to reflect on those all important three words above – Connect, Share and Compete.
Since last June, we’ve seen close to 600 million online game sessions of EA SPORTS games played. That’s a lot of virtual blood, sweat and tears. Our plan is to ensure you can savour those victories and plan to avenge those defeats even when the console is turned off. Through the web site, you can stay connected during your lunch break or a business trip.
As part of the relaunch, you’ll have noticed even more blogs go live, so you can connect with the Producers direct – or maybe you’ve joined the Twitterati and are discussing your games with the Community Managers (the Essentials Carousel on the Beta has a listing in the Community section for this team). Perhaps you’ve posted on our new look forums.
I have said before how much I enjoy the robust discussion on this blog, but equally I’ve often referred to the plans afoot to ensure that when you do share your concerns and comments with us, that they get a response. I do read every post, but I’ve also empowered many people across the company, who have both the time and the details at their fingertips to provide answers to or join the debate with you.
Like any website, the new look site is evolving. I’d like to personally invite you to be a part of it’s future – connect, compete with our games and share your thoughts.
Posted
Jun 02 2009, 08:03 PM
It's been a busy couple of days of E3 thus far. I hope you're enjoying our coverage on the new EA SPORTS.com Beta site. Today I took a few moments from meetings and press interviews to speak with EA SPORTS Live team member Eric Gray and answer some of your questions from Twitter. View the video below and keep an eye on EA SPORTS.com and the Inside EA SPORTS blog for more E3 coverage.
Posted
Jul 25 2008, 12:43 AM
Neither fish nor fowl.
That is the predicament that E3 now finds itself in as the dust settles from last week’s summit. There was a palpable sense of frustration at the structure and logistics from all participants, from publishers like ourselves to the working press and financial analysts. Soulless and lacking an epicenter, the fragmented layout gave no indication whatsoever that we are the fastest growing entertainment medium in the world. While I am not sure I want to revert back to the old days of excess and one-upmanship, I do know that this format isn’t working…
Looking ahead to the future of E3, here’s what I do know:
• We’re confident that we can work with the ESA to make this right. There are important meetings ahead that we think will be substantive and be productive in finding the right path forward.
• Let’s invite the community. With the right planning, involving our biggest fans in E3 would bring back some of the raw passion the event has lost.
Whether it’s E3, or whether it’s in our forums, my belief is bringing in the fans helps us to create better games and bring new ideas to the market. On the
EA SPORTS World forums, our producers are now regularly interacting with consumers – our games are better for it, and it improves the fan experience. We’d love it if every game was perfect, but in all my years in the industry I’ve never seen a game with zero bugs. Because of the fans, we’ve already addressed a handful of issues in NCAA Football and NASCAR, and if we can create an environment to continue to get our games in the hands of you, our fans, sooner, then I’m all for it.
Cheers,
Peter
P.S. Random thought – do you think we might have to do a running change on the Madden packaging this year??
Posted
Jul 17 2008, 10:15 PM
Apologies for the lag time between posts - here in LA for E3,
where it's been a busy, but enjoyable, week for us here at EA.
I had a blast at our E3 press conference on Monday,
showcasing NBA LIVE 09 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR All-Play in front of more than
1,000 media and analysts at the Orpheum Theater here in LA. Click here to check out the
webcast on G4 if you missed it.
It was a real treat to welcome NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton
and LPGA pro Natalie Gulbis on stage to help with the demos.
With Dynamic DNA in NBA LIVE - an innovation that helps us
integrate authentic behavior and tendencies of every NBA player and team by
using the real-world data used by NBA teams in game ... and then updating it daily
via online updates - we're investing heavily developing connected experiences
for the online gamer as well as delivering unparalleled quality and authenticity
in gameplay.
For those of you that have not seen the press conference,
seeing Bill Walton in full swing is a sight to behold, and well worth your time
to watch and enjoy. As you will see from the footage, Bill really got animated
about such diverse issues as Spore, anti-smoking, Kobe, Phoenix Suns, Grateful
Dead, the unpredictability of sports - all in about 90 seconds. He was a blast
to be on stage with, and even more fun down in the Green Room, where he regaled
us with stories of his time under the great John Wooden at UCLA .
Our Tiger Woods game is probably the best example of our new
direction on the Wii with All-Play, with games that are built from the ground up
with unique controls, presentations and modes. With the help of PGA Tour pro
Natalie Gulbis, we showed how a duffer like me and a pro like Natalie can
compete on an even playing field.
Here's a taste of the scene backstage from our green rooms
with Natalie and Bill, where we talked basketball and golf, as well as rehearsed
our presentation.
And then in front of the bright lights of the Orpheum Theatre.
