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Posted
Oct 17 2009, 07:41 PM
Earlier this week, we made an
announcement that may have barely even made your radar, but I think is
extremely meaningful during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We
have launched two initiatives that we hope in some small way will help support
the goal of curing breast cancer.
- We've launched
an exclusive breast cancer awareness apparel package for EA SPORTS Complex
on PlayStation Home. The limited edition apparel sells for $2, it will be
available through November 11 and all proceeds will go to Drew Brees's Dream
Foundation charity.
- Meanwhile, our EA
SPORTS Active team has partnered
with Susan G. Komen for The Cure to sponsor various Race for the Cure events
around the United States this month and has launched a special edition EA
SPORTS Active "Pink" package, available throughout October.
As someone who has been
personally impacted by this terrible disease, I would urge all of us to learn
more about how we can help contribute to learning more about early detection
and treatment. Go to www.komen.org for more
information.
I thought of both of these
initiatives this past Tuesday night when I joined nearly a thousand others from
our industry here in San Francisco for the annual Nite to Unite black tie
event. While making and selling great games is our core mission in being
a successful company, I'm also grateful to the people at EA and throughout the
industry who recognize the need to give back, and in particular to children's
causes. As a past co-chair of the event, I take great pride in what the
industry has accomplished philanthropically over the past years.
For those of you not familiar
with it, Nite to Unite - for Kids (NTU) is an annual dinner hosted by the ESA
and supported by members of the association (companies like ourselves at EA and
other publishers and related companies) and the interactive entertainment
industry to raise funds for the ESA Foundation, which helps to make a
difference in the lives of America's kids. To date, NTU has raised more than
$10 million benefiting various organizations, and from the look of the activity
around the auctions this year, it seems like we will be adding handsomely to
that amount with this year's contribution.
Both the work our teams are
doing to support breast cancer awareness as well as the support shown across
the industry for NTU are proud examples for an industry that is all-too-often
the brunt of unfair and unwarranted criticism surrounding the supposed negative
impact we have on the social lives of young people here in the US and around
the world.
On a lighter note, we've been
thrilled with the launch of FIFA in Europe and I'm obviously anxious to see how
the North American launch goes next week (Nov. 20). As we have throughout
this summer and early fall, we continue to learn a lot about the changing
habits of EA SPORTS fans and their voracious appetite for online content - so
much so that sometimes it threatens the integrity of our robust online
servers. We asked "How Big Can Football Get?" throughout our FIFA 10
marketing campaign, and consumers in Europe quickly overwhelmed even our most
optimistic projections, shattering online records that we had just set two
months ago with Madden. We're thrilled with the interest and I'm glad our
teams have solved many of the capacity issues that plagued some of you in the
first few days out of the gate.
Heading to London next week to
support the NFL's continued international expansion program. New England
Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley. Go Pats!!!
Posted
Sep 08 2009, 07:29 PM
I trust my employers here at EA will allow me the indulgence of reminiscence and nostalgia on this day, 09/09/09, the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Dreamcast here in North America. It certainly doesn't feel like a decade has gone by since this innovative console ushered in the era of online gaming, albeit through a 56K modem, and thus changed the face of interactive entertainment forever. The memories of course are bittersweet - we all know how this movie ended - but I was fortunate to have worked at that time with some of the most amazingly dedicated individuals, all of whom were galvanized around a single goal : prove the naysayers wrong, launch the console with a bang, get to a meaningful installed base within the first twelve months, and keep the momentum going in the face of the upcoming stiff competition.
With the Dreamcast's online capabilities, we coined a phrase "We're taking gamers where gaming is going". In our heart of hearts, we worried that we would not be there for the entire journey, but it was with great pride that with our Sega Sports games in particular, that we ushered in the era of connected interactive entertainment. I don't think it is an overstatement to say that the Dreamcast and it's online network laid the ground for what we all take for granted today - online game play, linking innumerable gamers from around the world to play, compete and collaborate, as well as enabling new content to be delivered in addition to that which was delivered on the disc. As rudimentary as those first dial-up game play experiences were, we proved that it could be done, and that gamers were clamoring for competition that extended past whomever was sat next to you on the couch at the time.
Over the years, I have been asked many times whether EA's decision not to develop and publish games for the Dreamcast was a major contributing factor in its early demise. That we will never know. But it is hard to argue with EA's rationale at the time and the ultimate outcome - get in position for the impending arrival of the Playstation 2, deploying all resources against the newest version of Sony's already wildly successful video game platform. You can't argue with the results. EA came out of the blocks strongly in support of the PS2, and enjoyed tremendous success throughout the key years of that console's life cycle. If there was one irony to come out of this, it was necessity of investment in a sports label to bolster the Dreamcast lineup. Conventional wisdom in that period was that the first party should have a sports brand (Playstation had 989 Sports and Xbox would have XSN), and the Dreamcast was no exception. Thus was born Sega Sports 2K - named after the Y2K phenomenon that had us all paranoid that our computers were about to burst into flames on 01/01/00...
And what a launch line up we had. 18 titles was probably 3 or 4 too many, but we had all genres covered, featuring classics such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Aventure, NFL 2k and Ready 2 Rumble. All were brought to glorious 3-D life through the Power VR graphics chip. The "biggest 24 hours in retail entertainment history" occurred on 9/9/99, with day one sales totaling just under $98m To support this outstanding portfolio of games, and the need to explode out of the blocks at launch with the console, we knew we needed a disruptive, attention-grabbing campaign that would get gamers talking and drive anticipation. Thus was born the "It's Thinking" campaign, where we urged you to "Not think out loud, it might hear you" informed you that "Outsmarting it will only make it smarter" and warned you that "You know it's alive. Worse. It knows it's alive" Quirky and slightly dark, the ads generated more PR than the media spend - always the metric of a successful campaign...The media plan came to a crescendo on launch night as we debuted "Apocalypse" during the MTV VMA's, still ten years later one of the more dramatic and lavishly-produced video game commercials. My eternal thanks will go to the teams at Foote, Cone and Belding, our advertising agency at the time, and Access Communications, the PR agency who were in our corner for every round of this enthralling and exhilarating fight.
Allow me this forum to correct one misconception about the final days of the Dreamcast. As we emerged from the Christmas selling season of 2000 and collated the sales data in the following January, it was evident that we were falling short of the critical mass target we had set ourselves for continued investment (read: ongoing losses) in the hardware business. Sega of Japan had rightly set sales goals for the North American market for that critical period, and as strong as our numbers were, they fell short of where we needed to be to continue. The decision was made, from Japan, to pull the plug and begin the transition to becoming a multi-platform third party developer and publisher. We at SOA, while disappointed, were in full agreement that this was the only real course of action, and it was with a heavy heart that I hosted the conference call on January 31st, 2001, announcing that Sega was ceasing manufacturing of the Dreamcast console. The call on the decision was made by SOJ. The conference call to announce the decision was conducted by SOA.
Many saw the Dreamcast as a spectacular failure, a last-gasp effort by a once-powerful player in the industry to remain relevant (and solvent). If measured by longevity and the ultimate financial outcome, they were right. But the Dreamcast had a profound and lasting impact on the world of video games. Isao Okawa, the Chairman of Sega Enterprises and the driving force behind the Dreamcast, tragically passed away two months after that fateful January conference call. He had a vision that a game console, combined with the power of the internet, could bring people together in ways that were previously unimaginable. He didn't live to see that vision come to fruition, and his beloved Dreamcast couldn't survive to play a role in the powerful world of connected gaming we all enjoy today, but it certainly lit the spark, and that we should never forget...
Posted
Aug 18 2009, 07:17 AM
After a busy week in the UK, culminating in the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, I returned home to San Francisco for the weekend to support our latest announcement regarding EA SPORTS MMA. And what a blockbuster announcement it was, welcoming 5-time World Champion Randy Couture to the growing roster of fighters that will be featured in the game, which will ship in 2010. Hot on the heels of our recent announcement of Fedor Emelianenko,
Randy's addition to the team gives us two of the greatest fighters in the sport today, and a solid platform upon which we will continue to attract more of MMA's best talent, thus furthering our goal of growing the sport through marketing investment and the creation of a world-class game experience.
That evening I was thrilled to be able to attend the Strikeforce event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, of which we were a co-sponsor and had three fighters on the card wearing EA SPORTS branding on their shorts. There were particularly impressive outings from Gegard Mousasi and Gilbert Melendez, but of course the main event was the bout between Gina Carano and Cris "Cyborg" Santos. Much to the disappointment of a passionate crowd, the fight didn't get out of the first round, as Cyborg overpowered Gina from the opening bell...
I am now back in Europe, having just finished my section of the EA press conference here at GamesCom in Cologne. Dave Rutter, producer on FIFA 10, showed the latest developments on the title as we ready for the October launch. Just to make sure I wasn't suffering from any lingering effects of jet lag, Olympic Gold Medalist and 4-time World Champion Figure Skater Katarina Witt put me through my paces on EA SPORTS Active More Workouts, the latest iteration of our top-selling interactive fitness product for the Wii...
Finally, it was a disappointing weekend for me sports-wise, with Liverpool getting off to a dismal start to the new EPL season with a loss to Tottenham Hotspur with a lackluster display that only served to underline how weak our squad now is with the loss of Xabi Alonso. To add to the misery, the Red Sox slipped out of the lead in the AL Wild Card race with a series loss to the Texas Rangers, looking almost disinterested in the process...
Will post latest updates from Cologne as the week develops.
Posted
Aug 13 2009, 01:30 PM
As excited as we all are about the launch of Madden at midnight tonight, I'm actually thousands of miles away in the UK, where I gave a keynote this morning at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. My speech focused on the evolution of EA SPORTS over the past two years, while I also participated in an entertaining Oxford-style debate in the afternoon about the power of blockbuster games in our industry. With Madden in stores Friday and FIFA not far behind in October, you can guess which side I was on.
As for Edinburgh, this is my first time in this beautiful city, and in addition to the Interactive Festival, there are a myriad of other celebratory events taking place during the month of August. Most prominent is the Military Tattoo, which takes place in the evenings against the backdrop of the 14th century castle which still dominates the city skyline today. I was fortunate to be able attend the event on Tuesday evening, and what a spectacle it was...
Next week, I'll be at GamesCom in Cologne, where we'll be showing a number of our upcoming fall titles, including NBA LIVE 10, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online and NHL 10. FIFA is obviously our headliner for the show, and we'll have a number of announcements about both FIFA as well as EA SPORTS Active next week.
Even from across the pond, I've enjoyed following all the anticipation for our 21st Madden launch. I'll be in bed and won't be able to watch tonight's preseason game with the Steelers and Cardinals, but I've read plenty of commentary the past few days on the product. I loved GameDaily's, "If you're a football fan and you don't have this game, well, guess what? You're not a football fan.", and I'd encourage you to let me know what you think.
Of course, the conversations will be happening across various pages on the new easports.com, where you can talk to development team members and ask questions as you play, get tips and tricks from the dev team, check the online play and online franchise FAQ and even post your favorite highlights. Enjoy the game...
Cheers,
Peter
Posted
Aug 05 2009, 03:54 PM
August is certainly a great time of the year, as NFL Training Camps open and we near the launch of Madden. On Aug. 14, Madden hits stores, and you may have started seeing some of our TV advertising as we approach launch.
As I wrote yesterday on the PlayStation.blog, I love to see how "training" for Madden launch has become just as important to gamers as NFL Training Camps are for NFL players. These great new TV spots, created in collaboration with our good partners at PlayStation, clearly make that point!
Hope you're ready for Aug. 14. Be sure to download your
Madden demo today if you haven't yet done so...
Cheers,
Peter
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
May 29 2009, 08:17 AM
As many of you may have seen, EA Revolutionizes Sports Gaming with Tiger Woods Online, today we made a very significant announcement that signals a new future for EA SPORTS games on the PC. Based upon the commentary of recent posters to this blog (regardless of the subject matter), PC sports games and the position of EA SPORTS on that platform is still a source of interest and angst for a number of you, so I wanted to share with you directly some added context to why this is such an important announcement for EA and how it signals a new future for how we intend to bring our experiences to what is the largest gaming platform in the world, yet one so challenging for us without creative new products and new business models to support them.
As I’ve mentioned previously on numerous occasions, the personal computer as a viable platform for authentic sports games has declined radically in recent years, making it incredibly difficult to green light titles and allocate precious development resources for what has become a questionable return. Currently, the PC Sports Game segment is virtually non-existent, having shrunk to less that 1 percent of the overall videogame segment, from its peak in 1998, when the split was 83% console / 17% PC (in NA). A rapid decrease in the PC sports game segment share began in 2000 with the launch of the Playstation 2 and continued with the launch of each new console system since. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR is a perfect example of a product whose sales on the PC platform dropped precipitously from 2000-2008, as noted on the chart.
SOURCE: NPD Data
We’ve said a number of times that we think that while PC is rapidly becoming the largest gaming platform, the opportunity is not in the packaged goods PC business. That’s why we’re so excited about today’s announcement of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online. We intend to be at the forefront of that evolution and today’s announcement signals that. You can expect to see us investing in online games for the PC with new sports experiences, aimed at both the loyal hard-core as well as the broader sports fan. You can expect experimentation in subscriptions, premium downloadable content, downloads sponsored by advertisers, micro-transactions, free-to-play models and massive tournament play. I will say this again as clearly as I can – we are great believers in the PC as a viable platform for sports games, but not following the norms of the previous business model. These are challenging times for business and we have obligations to our employees, to our fans and to our shareholders.
Let me also take a moment to address, again, an area of frustration for those of you who state you have a right to know what we are negotiating, creating and planning as regards to our title. While I’ve provided insights on this topic previously, I’m happy to explain it again. We are constantly looking to bring announcements and information to our customers. It’s a part of this job that I love. However, we can only share information when all legal, competitive and operational issues have been cleared and licensor approvals have been obtained. Not a moment before. I’m proud at how we have opened our lines of communication. But, there are limits to how freely we can communicate during the development stages. That’s just how this business works.
In order to make fundamental shifts in an established ecosystem, you often have to have the courage to hit the reset button. Today’s announcement about Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is another, of many, examples of how we are doing that. You’ll continue to hear more about these strategies across our business in the future, including next week at E3.
I know I’m excited as excited as I have been in years to attend a show that I think will be chock full of big announcements, and I think it will signal an even heightened sense of optimism, innovation and confidence in our industry.
Peter
P.S. I’d invite you to go ahead and sign up now for the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online beta at www.tigerwoodsonline.com for when it becomes available later this year.
Posted
Apr 29 2009, 05:27 AM
It's been quite a week for us around here. No sooner did I get back from a great trip to London, where we were honored with the Grand Prix at the MCV Awards, but then on Monday in New York I'm proud to say that we were awarded, along with our great partners at ESPN, a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Technical Achievement for the EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook.
Being recognized alongside the finest in sports broadcasting for this breakthrough innovation means a great deal to us, especially as it signals real success against our vision to take the EA SPORTS brand even deeper into the greater sports landscape.
In case you haven't yet had the opportunity to see the EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook on ESPN, the technology debuted last fall and delivers "augmented reality" that allows ESPN's NFL analysts to interact in the studio with the virtual players from our 3D game engines to provide insight, education and analysis to fans about key football plays and techniques. We've really only just begun to scratch the surface on the power of this technology, and I'm excited to see where we go in more sports in the coming months and years.
To learn more about the EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook, be sure to check out this Q&A with Jason Parker, our very talented engineer who deserves huge kudos for his vision on this project from day 1. And of course, I'll welcome you to take a look at the great experience I had when our partners at ESPN welcomed me into the studio several weeks ago to take a spin "inside" the EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook for myself.
It would also be remiss of me not to comment on the fabulous run the Red Sox are currently on. Winning 11 of 12 has certainly made up for a slow start to the season. Ellsbury stealing home on the Yankees and a rather befuddled Pettitte and Posada on Sunday night is the highlight of the season so far...
Posted
Apr 24 2009, 07:35 AM
It is a big day for EA SPORTS football franchises on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, at Arsenal's Emirates stadium, I took a few moments to speak to Stevie Morgan (if you haven't heard his FIFA podcasts go here).
In New York, we've just announced not one, but two cover athletes (
Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu) for Madden NFL 10 along with a whole host of other
news.
It's already been a busy day and I've still got several hours of questions from the UK games press to field, but I look forward to hearing your opinions on the latest EA SPORTS news!
Cheers,
Peter
Posted
Apr 21 2009, 11:34 AM
I'm sure many of you read the news last week about Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus accessory hitting retail on June 8. This is obviously great news for gamers and an announcement that means a lot for us here at EA SPORTS, given the launches of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and Grand Slam Tennis a week later.
The early reaction from folks who have had a chance to play builds of both games using the WMP has been tremendous, and we think the accessory is going to enhance the authentic sports motion that we can bring to the platform for sports like golf and tennis. With our lineup this year, I think we're in the position to redefine the sports experience on the Wii.
The bigger news for us, which we've just announced today, is our exclusive, limited-time offer for bundles for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. In North America and in Europe, we'll have the Wii MotionPlus bundled with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR. And in Europe only, we'll have Grand Slam Tennis bundled with the Wii MotionPlus. Both are exclusive offers and both allow gamers to get the Wii MotionPlus for just an additional $10. We're excited about the great value and the partnership with Nintendo on this and think it's a big win for gamers. Hope you'll agree.
On a broader sports note, I am relieved to see Red Sox bats finally wake up, and even more excited to see the Yanks give up 22 runs in their new monolith versus the "mighty" Indians...