IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Peter Moore on Madden in 3D, Motion Controllers, Games as Services and More

Posted July 15, 2010 by James Brightman

IG: Why rebrand now after so many years? That name, NBA Live, has become sort of a staple in the industry.

PM: Well, sometimes you need to hit control-alt-delete when you’ve got a very different and much better experience. You know, the team talked about “should we rebrand it?” and I think, ultimately, we decided yes. We’ll see. So why? Because we felt it was the right thing to do.

IG: It seems you were starting to close the gap, in terms of quality with the competitors, the NBA 2K series, and it seems like maybe at that stage, since you are starting to close the gap, maybe just leave the brand alone.

PM: Now, I can tell you we did some pretty exhaustive consumer research. We love the name “Elite” and what it stands for, and Todd Sitrin and his team did a ton of research and put names in front of consumers and even guys who played NBA Live said, “Boy, NBA Elite sounds very, very cool.” And I think it signifies something different is going on and that’s clearly what’s going on there. I would welcome you to go and get your hands on it and have a look at it, and particularly get the shooting mechanic down and see how you get control of your player, if you’re a basketball video game player, and I think you’ll find it very different.

IG: How disappointed were you that you couldn’t get Jordan and that they, 2K, got Jordan to cover their game? It’s such a big marketing move from my viewpoint…

PM: Yeah… for a player that’s…

IG: He retired but he’s the greatest, or one of the greatest.

PM: I’m not quite sure what that signifies, quite frankly. We’re looking. We haven’t announced our player yet, but we tend to be forward thinking about our franchises. I mean, I’m a huge Michael Jordan fan, but in the same way that I don’t put Pelé on the cover of FIFA, we have the young up and coming stars. You’re going to see that again from us with NBA. We never went after Jordan. They have done it; it’s an interesting marketing move to use a retired player. I don’t know how they intend to use it. Michael Jordan? Well yeah, greatest player to ever play the game. [At the] same time, it's strange for the consumer... what does it signify? We interestingly just did a similar thing with Wayne Gretzky on Slapshot. One of the concerns that the marketing team had is, “How are you going to make sure this is seen as s fresh new game?” We take that feedback very seriously from our marketing team and how do we make sure that we’re indicating this is a new game, not an old game. We never went after Jordan. Good luck with NBA 2K11. They’ve got a great product and I’m sure their cover boy isn’t going to impact that.

IG: What kind of feedback are you getting from the Online Pass stuff that launched with Tiger? Because, initially, when it was first announced, there was a lot of negativity. People were like, “Oh my God, $10 more if I buy it used.” Is there an active feedback loop in place that you kind of are getting a sense of how the consumers…

PM: Well yeah, I just need to go read for half an hour. I understand the feedback. All that matters is the metrics, and I can tell you this: to date, we’re seeing more Tiger consumers connected this time. We’re only a week in, by the way. It’s very early days. But two metrics, and we spoke to this at an analyst breakfast this morning, is we’re seeing more consumers connecting with Tiger ‘11 the first week than Tiger ‘10. So, they’re connecting, and we’re seeing more consumers connecting and playing, so two metrics. There are more online consumers now that have Tiger ‘11 connected and the more important metric, which is a good precursor to what we’re doing with online team play for the Rider Cup later in the year in October, is we’re seeing people playing online. And the fact now we can have online team playing golf, we think, is a big deal. It’s not going to be huge until September/October comes, when the Rider Cup kicks in. So online pass, you know, we’ve talked about that ad nauseum… not much more to say. I’ve read all the feedback; we think we’re adding value to the online experience.

IG: What are your thoughts on the whole 3D push we’ve seen, coming mostly from Sony? Obviously, sports could look pretty cool in 3D, although it just seems like, right now, just my own personal viewpoint, is that it still looks a little weird when you put the glasses on. It just doesn’t feel right. But I’m curious what your opinion is on the whole 3D gaming question…

PM: Well, I’ve already seen Madden running in 3D and I think you’re, uh… well, less that it looks weird for me, and it's more about “how is it adding consumer value?” The one thing that was very clear to me when I saw it, because we just, if you will, repurposed our current Madden into 3D, is that when you were down low with particular camera angles and you had depth of field situation, it was cool. You could see players move around. But the usual camera angle is to see the entire field so you can make decisions accordingly as a player, and 3D was almost imperceptible there. What I think that the industry has learned is that when someone like a James Cameron starts doing a movie that he knows is going to be in 3D, he looks at camera angles in a very different way than someone who is not doing a movie in 3D. I think our industry has learned that as well. I thought Killzone was cool and you saw what we did with Crysis…

IG: Yeah, that was cool.

PM: Really cool. And again, the team at Crytek had taken some camera angles down low, looking down the streets of New York having some depth of field situations in there that played up 3D well and were advantageous to the game’s situation. So yeah, we’re looking at it. We’ve got to get it right; we’ve probably got to build a game from scratch knowing it's going to be seen in 3D.

IG: Right. From the online perspective, and I know that EA has talked in general about games as services for a long time now, do you foresee the day where, instead of going and buying Madden, you just kind of get new features and a roster updates through the Internet and it’s just sort of an existing Madden service, instead of having a Madden ‘11, a Madden ‘12, Madden ’13?

PM: Games ultimately become a service. I think everything online ultimately becomes a service. Your real question is, “Are we selling full priced physical media in the future?” And I think for the very foreseeable future, yes we are, but there will come a time, who knows when, big hard drives will be what we will all have, whether it's next generation of consoles and all of a sudden we’ve all got a terabyte or whatever at our disposal, and then games will be a service. How that really shows itself with something like Madden or a FIFA is yet to be determined. But yeah, more and more we’re using that. I think what we’re seeing, more importantly now, is the incremental value. Things like playing FIFA Ultimate Team or Madden Ultimate Team. Those are the things that are getting people excited, that ability now to provide that level of service. Using the disc as a platform, and the disc actually becoming the beginning, rather than the end. In other words, you’ve got your disc, everything’s on it, but, boy, we’re still working and delivering new service elements of it. And FIFA Ultimate Team has just been a runaway success and Madden Ultimate Team, which we shipped a little late last year, January during the playoffs, but will be, you know, the type of thing you can expect to see earlier in the season this year.

PM: So here's a funny question. I was waiting with a couple of colleagues at the Microsoft Kinect Cirque Du Soleil event, and we happened to notice you there and we thought we overheard you saying something to the effect that you didn’t want to wait anymore and just kind of left. Did you actually stay for the event?

PM: Oh, I stayed!

IG: Why would you, as a former Xbox chief have to wait in line all that time? Why would Microsoft treat you that way? (Laughter) 

PM: I got there, there was a line, I joined a line. I’m English; it’s what we do. We queue up. We queue up is what we do. I just got in line. Andrew Wilson was there with me... And it was very interesting. It was very dramatic, I saw a lot of old friends, and actually sat with all the PR folks, a lot of people you probably know, had my white smock on, and off we went. (Laughter) So yeah, we just joined the end of the line. I got there a little late. I don’t expect to be ushered in like some VIP.

IG: (Laughter) Well, you know, you’re an important guy. Ok, thanks as always Peter.  

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.