Peter Moore Blog : NFL

Giving Back

PeterMooreBlog — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:41:00 GMT

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!!!

Draft Time

petermoore — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:00:00 GMT

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…

February 14th

petermoore — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:04:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who’s visited my new blog over the past few days this week. It’s been entertaining reading both the emails I’ve received as well as some of the feedback I’ve seen online since Monday.

First things first, a few things you should know:

-No. I don’t have a mystery ghost writer. Believe it or not, this was actually my idea and I’m managing to carve out a little bit of time at least once a week, if not more, to share my (sometimes) random thoughts. I love this stuff … it’s a lot of fun.

-Yes. I agree, the format we’re posting in right now isn’t ideal. It also isn’t final. As I said on Monday, I know I’m a little late to the blogosphere, so please forgive me here that it’s going to take a little time to get this exactly the way we want it. But the wheels are in motion for this to get bigger and better over time. Have patience – all will be resolved in due time.

- Yes. I love the feedback. Trust me, I’ve heard it all over the years – the good and the bad … and the really bad – so it’s fun hearing from you and having this dialogue. And while I won’t be able to reply to all of you, you should expect me to use this forum to touch on as many of the big themes and questions I see as possible.

I also wanted to take a few minutes to give you my thoughts on the news we announced yesterday regarding the extension of our exclusive licenses with the NFL and NFL PLAYERS. Here are a few things I think you should know. I want to make sure you have the facts straight from me, and while some of you may still take issue with the situation, it’s important to me that you have a grasp on the issues.

- Quality is our top priority. Everything else is a distant second place. This year’s Madden has its best scores since the transition, it’s won numerous awards, and we feel like we’ve got great momentum heading into this year and real reason to be optimistic.

- When people say that EA forced the NFL and NFLPA into going exclusive on this license, they really couldn’t be further from the truth. Four years ago, the NFL determined they wanted to take their business to one partner and opened that opportunity up to anyone who wished to bid. Several did, and we’re delighted that we earned the exclusivity rights. Likewise, we’re thrilled to have been able to extend our agreements with both the league and players association.

- Why now? Adding an extra three years to these agreements during a pre-determined negotiating window allows us to plan for the long term and know that we’re in a position to invest in the engine and invest in the resources it will take to make great NFL football games for years to come. It’s just good business, and again allows us to invest and innovate.

- While we’re thrilled to have this exclusive license, there’s certainly nothing that prevents other companies from releasing football games. We saw that this year and know there are other football-related games in development. Believe me, our team never rests and they’re anxious to continue to innovate in the years to come. We welcome the competition.

- One of the most exciting things about this partnership is that it allows us to experiment with other experiences that complement what we do on Madden. You’ve seen that in the past with Head Coach, NFL Tour and even Madden en Espanol last year. Some of you may not even realize we even do our own Fantasy Football on easports.com, and that’ s an area that I think we can do more in. Count on this: we’ll have more announcements coming very soon to show you that we’re committed to finding new high-quality NFL- related game experiences. We even provide our technology for world-class brands to promote their football emotion and authenticity. For those of you that didn’t get to see it, here is a link to the Nike TV commercial we worked on, using the Madden engine. We did two versions, Giants and Patriots. Even though I would only like to show you the Pats version, the good sportsman in me allows you to view both: http://www.nike.com/usnikefootball/? sitesrc=uslanding

- Last fall, I was at Wembley Stadium for the Giants-Dolphins game. As awful, quite frankly, as that game turned out being (due in no small part to the typically miserable London weather), 90,000 hardy fans turned out and gave the NFL great reason to believe that globalization of the game is a real strategic priority. I see no better way to introduce football to people in other parts of the world than through the universal language of videogames and Madden. (And, by the way, I never, EVER, could have fathomed that the NY Giants team I saw that afternoon would eventually be the Super Bowl champions. It still disgusts me. 18-1? Simply not good enough…).

Thanks for hearing me out. We’re so passionate about our NFL games, and we know there are millions of fans out there who are to, that it’s important to me that you all understand the real story.

And if you have a problem with it, take it out on me and not on the team in Orlando busting their butts building the best Madden in the 20 year history of the franchise. Incredible… 20 years. Tell me how many other games have had that kind of track record. This is going to be quite a celebration this year.

One last thing … I know a number of you will be at GDC next week or reading about some of what will go on there. If you don’t believe me when I tell you how much energy and passion and truly remarkable innovation that goes into developing Madden year in and year out, I urge you to check out a lecture we’ll give next week in San Francisco. Philip Holt, the head of our Tiburon studio, will be speaking on all the detailed ins and outs that go into making Madden one of the most popular games in the history of the industry. It’s a fascinating and complicated process that Philip leads in Orlando and I’d urge you to check out his talk.

I’m off to practice kicking field goals. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you will soon…

Drop me a line at InsidetheGame@ea.com.

- Peter