Browse by Tags
All Tags »
Madden (
RSS)
Posted
Aug 25 2009, 05:42 PM
I'm back from an excellent trip to GamesCom. Having shifted this year to Cologne, the organizers of this year's event and participating publishers and hardware manufacturers should be applauded for presenting such a compelling showcase for our medium. The combination of great games, big announcements and flawless logistics, complemented by a perfect August window, made for an event that certainly rivals E3 now as the most important milestone on the game industry calendar ... just ask any of the nearly 250,000 people who were in attendance (yes, this was a consumer event after trade-only on day one).
Aside from our demos and news around FIFA and EA SPORTS Active More Workouts at EA's Tuesday press briefing, the biggest headline of the show had to be from Sony. As I told a number of people last week, Sony's price drop is coming at the perfect time, it's great for gamers and I'm optimistic that it can mean very good things for us at EA SPORTS, where we know titles like Madden and NCAA Football have always had a very strong base of fans on Sony hardware.
Bottom line - this was a great inaugural effort from Cologne, and I left the show energized and optimistic, both for the industry, and for introducing EA SPORTS to more PS3 players.
As exciting as it was to see how popular FIFA was in Europe, I also watched with delight as reports came in about Madden's success out of the gate in North America. Madden has its highest critical acclaim in five years, and online engagement continues to show extraordinary growth year over year within EA SPORTS games. In the first weekend alone, Madden became our first title to ever hit 100,000 peak simultaneous users - nearly 10,000 more people than can fit in the NFL's largest stadium. And...more than 5.6 million online games were played during the opening week; the equivalent of over 21,000 NFL regular seasons!
While we are still cautious about worldwide economic conditions, this type of continued growth in our online experiences makes us feel very strong about where we're placing our bets right now in development and as a business and it makes us optimistic with the trends we're seeing with Madden.
Congrats to our passionate and hard-working team at Tiburon who should be applauded for listening to Madden Nation and delivering the product fans have been begging for.
Before I go, two final items on GamesCom:
*If you missed the video we released last week, please check it out here then go to the poll on Football World and let us know what you're most excited about with the new game.
*We were happy to welcome World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Wladimir Klitschko to our booth during the show. I was delighted to see how big a fan he is of our industry and of Fight Night Round 4.
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 16 2009, 04:18 PM
As football fans across the country were greeted with the news this morning of John Madden's retirement from broadcasting, I was struck by just how big an impact John has made on the sport for more than four decades. We all obviously knew this day would one day come, when John would walk away from the booth, but he certainly leaves a lasting legacy that we're proud to be able to carry on through our Madden NFL videogame franchise for years to come.
As you can imagine, we've had dozens of questions today about what impact John's retirement from NBC will have on EA SPORTS. I'm pleased that we continue our strong relationship with John and will continue to produce new versions Madden NFL football with his collaboration, including this August with Madden NFL 10.
John is a true sports icon who has made an indelible impact on the sport of football which will be felt forever. His prolific coaching and broadcasting careers, as well as his distinct role in shaping the EA SPORTS football experience have redefined how multiple generations have come to know and love the sport with unrivaled passion. We're excited to see his legacy live on in the 21st year of Madden NFL football, and well beyond. And how about this for a fun stat? Our dev team at Tiburon estimates that John has recorded roughly 30,000 lines of commentary for the game over the years.
In other news .... It's Round 2 for Geoff Keighley and I on Round 4. That's right, for those of you who remember me taking it to Geoff on FaceBreaker last fall, he was back for more recently here at EA, where he and I did battle on Fight Night Round 4. The episode airs tonight at 12:30 a.m, on SpikeTV and SpikeHD and will feature the first look at gameplay from one of the most anticipated games of the year. We also went deep on all kinds of other new content in FNR4, which hits stores in just a couple more months. Anyone want to guess who won?
A final point on the concept of communication via this blog. I cannot and will not respond to individual questions that ask for information on titles ahead of when we are ready or able to talk publicly. For the reasoning behind this, I will refer you back to my recent post regarding the complexity of announcing licensed games in development. I will also urge you to visit the individual development team blogs for the most up-to-date information on all of our franchises. This is clearly a source of frustration for at least a couple of you, but I will beg your indulgence and understanding that we are running a complex business that has a myriad of stakeholders, all of whom need to be in agreement before we discuss certain parts of our business publicly.
Peter
Posted
Sep 12 2008, 04:50 PM
Beauty has, and always will be, in the eyes of the beholder. Same scenario, I would posit, exists in the world of games. In the crowded marketplace that is game software in year three of the next-gen hardware cycle, “quality” becomes critical in the eyes of you the gamer, as well as the retail buyers and the games journalists around the world. We all generally point to independent aggregation sites like Metacritic or GameRankings to consolidate reviews and generate review scores by upon which, theoretically, we should all base our buying decisions. The ratings we have received for our titles from the gaming review sites over the last few months have been, for the very best part, outstanding, and I couldn’t be prouder of all of the talented individuals that work on our games.
Three months ago to the day , I guaranteed you’d see an unprecedented level of quality and innovation from our products this year. As we looked ahead to the busy season for EA SPORTS launches ahead, we talked about capturing our core with rich new innovations – many of which tap directly into the massive migration to online – while also bringing a level of approachability to our games. And we talked about doing all of it at a quality bar that would elevate the EA SPORTS experience to places we hadn’t been in many years.
With several of our biggest games now on store shelves and several more big launches ahead over the next two months, it’s time to say a quick thanks to our develop teams for delivering on my promise (you didn’t really want to see any new tattoos, did you?), as well as to our fans for their consistent dialogue and feedback on how we’re doing.
We’re not perfect, and we continue to address a handful of issues that have been raised over the past three months. But overall, we couldn’t be happier on a week when NHL 09 launches to the best scores we’ve seen in the current generation of consoles, Tiger and Madden are the most critically acclaimed Wii games on the market (all genres!), and Madden owns the top three spots on NPD and four of the top 10. I was quoted as calling it “vindication” earlier in the week when we announced our strong first three weeks of Madden sales, and I think that’s exactly right.
Let me repeat – our games are not perfect. None are. But we strive to deliver the very best sports game experience to you year in, year out. And this year, perhaps more than ever, the teams have done a *** fine job in delivering on that goal.
PS – Look for NBA Live 09 and FIFA 09 to continue these increases in quality when we launch them in a few weeks time…
Posted
Aug 19 2008, 07:54 PM
Just arrived in Leipzig for the annual Games Convention, where we will be talking about our globalization strategy for EA SPORTS, as well as giving attendees a much-anticipated deep dive on FIFA 09, by far our top selling game here in Europe.
It would be remiss of me if I didn’t thank all of the members of Madden Nation who joined us at the Rose Bowl last week for Maddenpalooza. As you can see from the attached video, a good time was had by all, as we welcomed a number of NFL legends, had non-stop music from acts like Busta Rhymes and Good Charlotte, and of course, had a full afternoon of hands-on with the game itself before our partners Wal-Mart sold the first game at the close of the evening.
We are also very proud of the outstanding reviews the game is garnering on the three consoles – great work from the team at Tiburon.
Red Sox making me feel very uneasy – mid-August and we are 4 ½ games back of Tampa Bay? Only good news is that the Yankees are even further back. Starting to feel like the wild card is the only way we get to the post season.
Across the pond, I watched Liverpool Saturday morning on Fox Soccer Channel (how did we displaced footie fans ever get by without FSC?). Unconvincing performance, but a win nonetheless. Thank God for Torres…
More later in the week.
Peter
Posted
May 11 2008, 06:02 PM
Back home after a big week up in Vancouver. We hosted our first-ever EA SPORTS Season Opener, a showcase of most of our upcoming games for this year for media from all over the world. It was a great chance to give early looks at our new games to media who had come from near and far to get a taste of what they can see this year from EA SPORTS.
You may have read some of the news and game previews that have come out of the event over the past few days. A few things I wanted to highlight:
• I’ve mentioned a number of times that a real priority for us as the gaming industry evolves is diversifying our portfolio. We unveiled two new initiatives last week that I think we will do that.
o We announced a new sub-brand with games designed for a broad casual sports gaming audience. EA SPORTS Freestyle replaces EA SPORTS Big, and we plan to ship three new games in the next year under this brand. FaceBreaker, coming in September, will be the first. While no announcements have been made, I’m also very interested in the health and fitness space and think we can be a leader in this space. Afterall, I was a P.E. teacher years and years ago and am excited about what we could do here.
o We also announced an initiative for the Wii called “All-Play”. We’re designing five of our most popular franchises exclusively for the Wii this year and they’ll feature unique controls, unique modes, unique presentation, and unique packaging. All-Play is a much more all-encompassing design philosophy that expands significantly on last year’s Family Play control scheme in Madden, FIFA and NBA LIVE.
• Last Wednesday, we confirmed that Fight Night Round 4 is in development and slated to release in 2009. It was an honor to have three of boxing’s best at EAC to make the announcement. You’ll see below that Winky Wright, Lennox Lewis and Sugar Ray Leonard look more at home in the ring that I do, but it was sure fun listening to them talk about the sport and picking their brains for ideas for Fight Night. We obviously also listen to feedback from the fans on what you want to see in our games, and so we’re also excited to be bringing Mike Tyson back to videogame boxing for the first time in nearly a decade. That’s something fans have been begging for.
• I also had a chance to catch up with a number of our producers over the past week and remain really motivated by the great work that’s being done. After we had our first announcement about this year’s Tiger Woods game last week, we had some questions about some of the new features. So I caught up with Executive Producer Mike Taramykin and asked him to clarify a few things they have planned for this year. Click here to see what Mike had to say.
Cheers,
Peter
Posted
May 02 2008, 12:14 AM
We’re back again with more answers to some of the questions you’ve been posing to me here on the blog. As I’ve said in the past, both myself and our development teams enjoy reading all the comments and questions that have been streaming in. While we can’t respond to everything, I do try at least once a month to take a handful of questions straight to the teams and get the answers you are looking for.
Of course, as we get closer to launch on most of our franchises, producers will be keeping blogs and handling your questions directly on the individual product websites.
Pdro said:
“Hello peter moore, i dont get what your tying to say in this blog but instead of working on that site, why dont you help fix easports site up, the login is always messed up. the site needs to be cleaned up, and easports site forums are the worst. nothing but spam and post that makes no sence. oh update the madden09 site, im curious to see what the new game looks like, im tired of seing old maddens info on there. i wana see 09 news! but ya even i use the internt too much. especilly easports site as you can see by me replying here and the developer post on the forums.
good luck with easports title, dosnt seem your making much of an effort on the games. your more focusd on myfootballclub site an the final4 an stuff. Lol”
Peter: What login problems are you having? If you are having trouble with your password, please try the “forgot password” option where your password will be e-mailed to the e-mail address you originally signed up for. Otherwise, if you can’t remember, you could always create another account. What parts of the site are you talking about cleaning up? We have the latest information that’s available for our titles on there, including the Madden NFL 09 site which launched last week when we announced Brett Favre as our new cover athlete for the game.
As for the myfootballclub website, I do like to spend some of my free time on that site interacting with what they have to offer, but I mention the site because we have our own social networking sites available right now (www.easportsworld.com and www.easportsfootball.com ). In this blog, I won’t just touch on things going on in the business of EA SPORTS, but I’ll talk about things outside EA SPORTS and the industry all together that interest me.]
Dan said:
“As both a PS3 and Xbox 360 owner, I'm happy that both versions of NCAA 09 Football will be running at a smooth, 60 FPS. Now, I have some variety in choosing which version of the game I want to buy! Can we expect the same from Madden '09?”
Phil Frazier: Both the PS3 and X360 versions of Madden will run at a smooth 60FPS. Even better, while trying to squeeze performance out of each console we’ve managed to significantly improve the visuals of the game this year.
Henry said:
“I've been playing Madden for a long time and really enjoy the Game. The question I have is for the upcoming Madden, will there be a way to add previous version controls for Madden 09.(ie Madden 02,03,05): While some of the controls can be customized, it would be nice to pick a particular year that can be selected by the user.”
Phil Frazier: The Madden experience is tuned specifically for the default set of controls. While there was a significant change to our control scheme when we made the jump from current to next gen, our controls each year stay mostly the same so that our fans don’t have to completely re-learn the game. Madden 09 does not have controls from specific versions of Madden but we do offer a lot in terms of customization. All of the customization options in the game allow any user to alter their experience so that the game delivers their exact ideal football experience.
Don Juan said:
“I just looked at a youtube video of nfl fever 2002..The makers of NFL Fever were able to use the specs of original Xbox to put towels on their player models 6 years ago...How come the makers of Madden and NCAA football still haven't figured out how to put towels and other realistic additions on their player models?”
Dale Jackson: Madden 09 features extremely realistic player models. The models this year have been completely rebuilt, and along with the upgraded visuals, provide the most realistic looking sports game ever. We don’t have towels this year but will make sure this gets some serious consideration for future iterations.
Posted
Apr 27 2008, 07:53 PM
Following our unveiling Thursday evening of Brett Favre as the Madden NFL 09 cover athlete on The Late Show with David Letterman, we followed up with a luncheon in New York City honoring the legendary quarterback on Friday.
Sponsored by EA SPORTS, we brought in Sterling Sharpe, former teammate of Brett's in Green Bay, as the MC. Also present were Steve Mariucci, who was Brett's QB coach in the early years, as well as Matt Hasselbeck, who was back-up to Brett in Green Bay before moving to Seattle.
I've attached some exclusive pictures of the event, including the presentation to Brett of a limited-edition Xbox 360 featuring the cover artwork. Great event, honoring a tremendous athlete and human being.
Posted
Apr 25 2008, 08:14 AM
As you may have heard by now, we tonight announced Brett Favre as our cover athlete for Madden NFL 09. Brett unveiled the new packaging on The Late Show with David Letterman, and I was proud to be present at the taping to see the announcement first hand.
It is with great pride that we take the bold step of featuring a retired player on the front of packaging, an honor normally reserved for a player at the peak of his game. I say with great pride, because some may question the marketing strategy behind this (and many at EA did just that, quite frankly). I don't for one minute.
In this, the 20th year of this storied game franchise, as far as I was concerned there was only one choice. As we look back over the past couple of decades in the NFL, Brett stands out to me personally as a beacon for everything that made me a huge fan of this great game from almost the moment I arrived from the UK in the early eighties (and became a fan of the LA Rams, with Vince Ferragamo at QB, but that’s a story for another posting…).
Forget all of his record-breaking stats – it was his approach to every game he played, his leadership and spirit on the field, his “gun-slinger” style in an era of robotic QB’s, and most of all the way he wore his heart on his sleeve for us all to see. I can’t forget the Monday night game versus the Raiders the night after his father unexpectedly died, when he threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns. Unless you were wearing silver and black that night, you both cheered and cried for him.
His fight with addiction to prescription drugs, his wife Deanna’s battle with cancer soon after his father died…all of this makes this good old boy from Mississippi one of my favorite players of all time. Nobody deserves more to be on the cover of our game this year than Brett Favre. So you can question whether having a retired player on the cover is a smart move, but we made this decision for one reason, and one reason alone… because it was the right thing to do.
Posted
Apr 23 2008, 02:00 AM
So I see the Dolphins have already signed Jake Long to a
5-year contract. So much for any suspense on Saturday morning when the draft gets underway.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’ve mentioned a couple of times already that I’m getting excited for
NFL Head Coach. I keep seeing really good things, and think this is my kind of game. Which is why I wanted to call your attention, if you haven’t already seen it, to our
announcement today that we’re going to ship NFL Head Coach as a standalone game. I have to admit, even I was surprised by how much feedback we’ve gotten the past few weeks since we announced it as a featured item of our
Madden Collector’s edition. That’ still going to be the first place to get it, but keep an eye out for NFL Head Coach on Sept. 2 on its own.
Incidentally, we also released a simulation of this weekend’s draft using the game engine from Head Coach. We had Jake Long going No. 1. Surprising from my perspective that we have seven ACC guys going in the first round. I thought that was a basketball conference! Not surprising was that USC led the way with four players in the first round. And how about Cal’s DeSean Jackson, my own personal favorite in the draft. He may be small, but whoever gets him is going to be happy they did.
PS. My day was officially ruined by Liverpool’s John Arne Riise’s tragic own goal with almost the last touch of the game versus Chelsea in the Champion’s League. Tough to go to Stamford Bridge and pull out a win now…