February 25th

petermoore — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:38:00 GMT

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

Peter Moore Blog : MCV

February 25th