Peter Moore Blog : NCAA Football

FIFA and Madden Earning Great Acclaim

PeterMooreBlog — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:42:00 GMT

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.

NCAA Football in Stores, First Look at MMA and More

PeterMooreBlog — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:37:00 GMT

It’s been a busy few weeks, but we’re excited for another big launch week here with NCAA Football hitting stores tomorrow.

We’ve talked a lot lately about our products as live services, with new content and ongoing support after launch … NCAA Football is a great example of how that live support is quickly evolving to mean functionality both post and pre ship. Consider this – we announced TeamBuilder, the new create-a-school online feature, last month at E3 as something that would allow fans to create content for NCAA Football 10 before the game had even shipped. Now six weeks later, more than 160,000 teams have been created online and can be imported into the game beginning tomorrow. I’ve got to admit – that’s an eye-popping number.

I was excited to see the first NCAA Football review hit today, where TeamXbox calls it “the best football game I have ever played on an Xbox” in giving it a 93. Heady praise indeed, and having seen the final build last week in Tiburon, I think you will be in agreement that the development has once again captured the passion, commitment and excitement of college football.

More news and notes from the weekend:

• I find myself playing the beta of Tiger Online every opportunity that I get recently. The concept of playing Tiger straight from my web browser, and to be swinging the club 20 seconds after opening the site, is a blast. We are closing in on an open beta, and I will post a link to that as soon as the team is ready to scale.

• The news on Saturday of the death of former world champion boxer Arturo Gatti hit me particularly hard. He was a great friend of EA SPORTS, appearing in each of the last two editions of Fight Night, and as all boxing fans know, he had the heart of a lion in the ring. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Miami three years ago, and he spent a couple of hours with my daughter and I regaling us with stories of his upbringing, his pre-fight regimen, and fascinating anecdotes of his great fights against Micky Ward. You were a champion in and out of the ring, Arturo, and will be sorely missed by those of us here at EA SPORTS who had the honor and privilege of working with you over the years.

•    Fk915 – yes I know the Ashes have started, and while it is impossible to watch the action over here in the US, I do follow the matches via BBC.com or Cricinfo.com. While England opened brightly on the first day, they ended up having to heroically hang on for the draw at the end. It seemed that the wicket was a bowlers nightmare at first, and while if I were the Aussie captain I might have declared an hour or two earlier, it came right down to the last wicket and what was undoubtedly a thrilling and nail biting last few overs.

•    Fight Night Round 4 continues to garner critical acclaim, with scores that put it in the top 6 percent all time for all games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. For those of you that requested the option of the button controls, I am sure you saw our announcement last week that a download enabling this would be available by September. Having played a couple of hours over the weekend with my son alternating playing as Muhammad Ali and keeping Iron Mike Tyson at arm’s length, I am a confirmed sticks guy at this point, but I also recognize many of you want the option of the buttons as well. The development team is working on this, and we’ll get this to you as soon as we can…

•    I also saw the first playable of EA SPORTS MMA while at Tiburon last week. We have a team of incredibly hardcore fans of the sport working hard and making excellent progress, and we look forward to delivering a title in 2010 that we believe will provide further focus and attention to the sport.

I know there has been some recent discussion about EA SPORTS bringing a challenger to this sport. I love mixed martial arts, and we’ve been working on a game concept since I came to EA two years ago. I have great respect for the organizations and individuals that have invested in the sport’s growth over the past decade – so this is one that is near and dear to me and I’m excited to see such good progress to date. I trace my MMA video game roots back to my support of Crave’s UFC title on the Dreamcast in 2000, and have been a fan ever since. Our title will bring both innovation and further authenticity to mixed martial arts, not to mention a strong global publishing network that will help spread the sport’s popularity around the world.

Finally, wish I could have been in Vancouver today for our big fall preview event. Media and community were joined by such stars as Venus Williams, Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic), Milan Lucic (Boston Bruins) and Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA) for previews of NBA LIVE 10, FIFA 10, NHL 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Our EASPORTS.com team was there to bring you everything from the event.

Football Covers Revealed Next Week

PeterMooreBlog — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:56:00 GMT

Before we get out of here for the weekend, I wanted to quickly remind you of next week’s big week for our football cover announcements. I know many of you have been enjoying reading all the latest news about both Madden NFL and NCAA Football on our Inside EA SPORTS blog, and next week we unveil the cover art for both products throughout the week.

On NCAA Football, I know many of you saw that on Wednesday we announced Erin Andrews will be a sideline reporter in NCAA Football 10. Erin is also featured in a new mode that we will announce at a later date. I know she’s already made her predictions on who will be on three of the four NCAA Football 10 covers, but what do you think? She’s a Gator, so obviously she picked Percy Harvin, as well as Michael Crabtree and Matthew Stafford. Let us know what you think and be sure to check out ESPN’s College Football Live next week. From Monday through Thursday, one cover will be announced each day on ESPN.

Of course Friday marks the announcement of the Madden NFL 10 cover. The countdown began a few weeks ago, and we’ll make things official on Friday.

I’ll enjoy reading your comments about selections as the week goes on, or feel free to jump into the debate now.

I’ll be in the UK next week for the first look at FIFA 10 for the European media. I’ll be sure to post back what the reactions are to this early unveil of our “other” football franchise.

E3 - Go Big or Go Home

petermoore — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:43:00 GMT

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??

Not Resting on our Laurels

petermoore — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:32:00 GMT

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been captivated by the NBA Finals this year in a way that I haven’t been in years. There’s no Cinderella teams this year, no surprises. The Celtics and Lakers are the two best teams in the league, period, and both playing at their peaks. Even the best players are going to have their ups and downs in a seven game series (Kobe in Game 1, Pierce in Game 3), but what you see in basketball in perhaps more than any other sport is how hard it can be being number 1. I marvel at how Kobe and Pierce can consistently handle the double and triple teams, the constant pressure defense and the scrutiny. Yet, when all eyes are on them and expectations are at a climax they continue to deliver. It also underscores the importance of home court advantage. Whether it is the proximity of the fans to the action or the controlled indoor environment, it always seems to me that playing at home is a greater advantage in basketball than just about any other sport…particularly in the playoffs.

As any business does, we’ve been completing our annual performance reviews the past few weeks as well as setting objectives and strategic priorities for the year ahead. I find sports always serve as a great metaphor, and so as I was watching the game last night and reviewing our upcoming plans, I thought about what it takes to be on top, to stay on top and to constantly be in the crosshairs of the rest of your industry.

Some people don’t like the heat. I actually love it, and it’s been inspiring for me to see that our teams here do as well. Our teams are talented, passionate and motivated.   It’s a changing marketplace and they’re responding to the demands of our consumers by developing some incredible products for the season ahead. You’d expect nothing less from EA SPORTS, especially when you look at the successes of 2007. To set the record VERY straight (despite what you might have read to the contrary in the last day or so…), we had:

•   Four EA SPORTS titles get Sports Game of the Year nods by various outlets, including FIFA, NCAA Football, Madden and NHL. Of course NHL was consensus best in class, as I mentioned a few days ago. Named sports game of the year by seven publications. No one comes close to that.
•   Three EA SPORTS titles in the overall industry top 20. It was a great year for videogames, and Madden was No. 1 in sports and No. 4 overall.
•   Seven platinum titles (more than one million units sold).

I read the forums, I read your posts on my blog, and we do extensive research and testing to deliver the best sports games on the market each year. We care what you say, we respond as much as we possibly can, and so I’m not surprised that early NASCAR reviews are very positive and that our Madden and NCAA FB community event recently had folks applauding the efforts coming out of Tiburon (more on that to come, BP). I’m not surprised that NBA LIVE, which jumped 15 points in review scores a year ago, has the most ground-breaking feature from our lineup this year and we’ll unveil it next month at E3. And I’ll say with supreme confidence that the future couldn’t be brighter for two of our most critically acclaimed products from a year ago – FIFA and NHL.

We’re never satisfied. There’s always more we can do. It’s what we love about our business. I hate to sound like a cheerleader, but the facts are the facts. And I don’t expect them to change any time soon. We’re hitting this season in terms of quality and innovation stronger than we ever have at EA SPORTS. If I’m wrong, you’ll see me sporting a new tattoo - maybe a competitor’s logo?

Life at EA Redwood Shores

petermoore — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:52:00 GMT

Last month, we had part 1 of a behind-the-scenes taste of life at EA Redwood Shores, where I am based full time. Last time, we looked at our player’s lounge, sports bar and more. This week, I wanted to take you around the rest of the campus here in Redwood Shores, including a look at the soccer pitch, basketball court and more.

Part 1

[flv width='400' height='225']http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/peter_moore_blogs/EASgenPMBLOG1gV10.flv[/flv]

Part 2
[flv width='400' height='225']http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/peter_moore_blogs/EASgenPMBLOG3gV10.flv[/flv]

As I’ve mentioned, our two main development studios are just outside of Vancouver (EA Canada) and in Orlando (Tiburon), and I’ll look forward to tours of those studios at some point as well.

Coming soon: more Q&A with our producers on Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, NASCAR, NCAA Football and more.

Cheers,

Peter

Answering YOUR Questions!

petermoore — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:14:00 GMT

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.