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Posted
Oct 29 2008, 12:05 AM
My apologies on the gap between posts - travel schedule is
heavy this time of year as we're deep in planning for some new projects you'll
be hearing more about soon. So I haven't
had chance to respond to some your comments and suggestions for a while. It's
great to see the volume of questions from EA SPORTS fans who are interested in
more in depth of information about our titles.
In the very near future we'll have some informative destinations where
fans can interact directly with development team members for all of our EA
SPORTS titles. More on that soon...
I do however want to make the point that is nigh impossible
for me to personally chase down answers to all of your questions, and to be
blunt that was not the intention of this blog. I expect our fans to be heard
though, and we have a full team of people working to address your concerns to
make your experience even better. But,
rest assured, I love reading the colorful banter and I will do my utmost to
direct you to the appropriate destinations where you can get the information
you are looking for...so keep the comments coming.
In the meantime, here are a couple of updates that address
some of the concerns mentioned above as we head into the weekend.
Hatch and a few
others have asked about "dirty disc errors" on NHL 09?
I'm happy to report that our NHL team has addressed the
dirty disc errors that were appearing on the Xbox 360 versions of the game in a
new patch coming soon. They've also
taken an already great playing game and made it better with some important game
play fixes.
I say this a lot, but we're all grateful in this industry
for the power of the online experience to not only be able to host millions of
games each day across the world, but we're also able to bring new game updates
post launch. No piece of software is
ever perfect and I know our teams are always hungry to address issues as
quickly as they can once a game has launched.
NHL 09 Producer David Littman has posted a blog that gives a
deep dive on all the work done in the PS3 and Xbox 360 patches. Click here to read the blog.
When will NBA LIVE be
"made fresh daily"?
With the NBA season now underway, we're excited to flip the
switch on one of our most breakthrough innovations of the year - Dynamic DNA in
NBA LIVE 09.
We couldn't start the service officially until all NBA teams
had begun their season. Now that they
have, keep an eye out for an update on EA
SPORTS World as we plan to push our first new stream of data today. The NBA LIVE dev team will be there to give
you all the latest details and help answer your questions.
Finally, I want to reiterate how much I love reading the
commentary. Sure, our goal is always for
it to be positive, but when it's not we also want to have a place you can go to
be heard and get answers.
I have three good recommendations:
-If you have an immediate
issue with getting some aspect of your game to work, we have teams of dedicated
EA SPORTS customer support agents available to address your concerns 24
hours a day. You can submit questions to the customer support team at http://support.ea.com any time, day or
night. Most emails get answered within 24 hours.
-If you'd prefer to talk to
someone rather than email, our customer support line is (650) 628-1001.
- We're also seeing exciting
growth on EA SPORTS World, where we're growing our producer blog content
and we have our community teams actively involved to respond to your
questions and concerns.
On a closing note, I was honored to be at Wembley Stadium
last Sunday to support the NFL in their second regular season game at that
wonderful venue. The game enjoyed much better weather and the contest was much
more entertaining than last year. The New Orleans Saints (without the services
of Reggie Bush) prevailed 37-32 over the San Diego Chargers, with 83,000 fans
being entertained by open and aggressive play from both sides. The game went
down to the final play, when Philip Rivers launched a Hail Mary into the end
zone, which if caught would have won them the game. Alas for Chargers fans, it
was not to be...
Earlier in the afternoon I was at Chelsea to see my Mighty
Reds end the Blues 86-game unbeaten home streak, and go clear at the top of the
Premiership. Long way to go yet, but feeling like this could be the year...
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
Jun 10 2008, 05:52 AM
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…