How should companies judge a game’s success?
February 18, 2008 by pastapadre · 40 Comments
The interview held with Peter Moore has sparked some good discussion and the reaction has been interesting to follow. One of the more frequently commented upon topics is Moore’s use of Metacritic as a major basis for considering Madden 08 to be an excellent game. While in some ways it may have been, everyone would agree that there is a lot of room for improvement in the series.
That got me to thinking. I’m of the belief that Metacritic is not the best method for determining how good a game was, how well it has been received, or what would need to be improved on going forward for reasons I’ll go into shortly. The Wall Street Journal touched on this topic with a piece about how important the scores are to companies (a great read that can be found here). What other ways could the overall success and reaction to a title be determined if not by reviews?
Full interview on NFL exclusivity with Peter Moore
February 12, 2008 by pastapadre · 42 Comments
Here is the full recording of my interview today with EA Sports President Peter Moore on the topic of the NFL exclusivity extension. Check out my earlier post for a preview of what you can expect to hear discussed.
The interview goes on for 22 minutes. Given the short amount of time available I basically just bounced from question to question to try and get as much in as possible.
Click this link to download the audio file from rapidshare. Scroll down and click “free”. It’ll make you wait a short amount of time before the code that you enter into the box appears and you can begin the download.
Preview of Peter Moore interview
February 12, 2008 by pastapadre · 17 Comments
My interview with Peter Moore has been completed and I’d like to thank him and those at EA Sports who helped make it possible. We talked for over 20 minutes about some of the details of and issues relating to the NFL exclusive license being extended. Later this evening I should have the full recording of the interview available to download and listen to.
Here are some of the topics I brought up that you can look forward to hearing discussed:
- How does EA feel about the negative reaction from within the community regarding the deal and what can they do to change that
- Is there a difference in how games such as Madden with no direct competitor are produced vs other titles that have direct competition
- What is the reasoning behind the drop in sales from 07
- How the ESPN and NFL Network licenses are seen as not being utilized properly and how that may affect overall perception of the NFL license deal
- The consistent disappointment in areas such as presentation, commentary, and atmosphere
- Why are there uniform inaccuracies every year despite working together with the NFL and what could be done to eliminate that problem
- Why does it seem AAA titles such as Halo, Call of Duty, and Bioshock have advanced so much since the last generation of consoles but sports games haven’t (outside of graphically)
Is the loss of College Hoops a sign of things to come?
January 16, 2008 by pastapadre · 24 Comments
Now that we know College Hoops 2K9 has been canceled, and that it didn’t have anything to do with exclusive license negotiation, it would make sense to look at the other titles in 2K Sports’ lineup. Relatively low sales, alarming lack of growth and potential, and the troubled status of Take Two appears to have led to the decision that the College Hoops series was expendable. What does this mean for the rest of their lineup?
Another story on the relationship between media sites and game companies
January 9, 2008 by pastapadre · 7 Comments
VGMWatch posted an interesting article yesterday detailing the recent editorial from a bitter Electronic Gaming Monthly editor-in-chief Dan Hsu. In it he actually went out of his way to name particular companies who were no longer giving them access to provide pre-release coverage and reviews.
According to Hsu, Midway’s Mortal Kombat development team, Sony’s sports game division, and Ubisoft have all allegedly banned EGM/1Up from further coverage of their products. The reason: Apparently, they didn’t take too kindly to EGM’s review coverage of their games.
And really, I can’t blame those companies for making that decision. Why should Sony give EGM/1Up anything when they killed MLB 07: The Show (PS3) in their review? It was the lowest score given to the game and contrasts with how well it has been received by consumers. Sony can offer other sites the opportunity to cover their games instead. This isn’t to say they are shopping around for better review scores. They would just like fair, respectable and complete coverage. And anyone who has read 1Up reviews knows those tend to be very light on details, spotlight random things while ignoring much bigger elements of the game, and are sometimes simply inaccurate. Those issues almost certainly factor into it, although the score ends up being the thing of most importance.
Will the 360 continue getting better versions of EA Sports games?
January 7, 2008 by pastapadre · 10 Comments
Microsoft games chief Don Mattrick references two EA Sports titles in an interesting post-CES memo. Mattrick took over the position vacated by Peter Moore when he left to head up EA Sports. Within the memo Mattrick made a comment about how the 360 is not only seen as the console of choice for sports fans but how it will continue to have better versions of the same games as compared to the PS3.
…we will continue to be the leading choice for sports fans, with the next editions of Madden and FIFA looking and playing better on our platform.
While it is no surprise that the 360 is and will likely always be the console that has the strongest support from sports gaming fans this generation, it was expected that the PS3 versions would be at least up to par on a visual and performance level from here on out.
Recently EA reached 60fps on the PS3 with NBA Live 08 making the two versions virtually identical. Prior to that games such as NHL, Madden, and NCAA Football ran at only 30fps on the PS3 resulting in them feeling slower and less responsive.
In general the only separation between the two consoles with these games should be the controller rumble, achievements, and online features related specifically to the capabilities of the particular systems.
Whether the 360 versions will continue to have obvious advantages will remain to be seen. It is however curious to see a comment made by Mattrick, who stepped into Moore’s position, stating that there will be discernible advantages while citing games such as Madden 09 and FIFA 09 which are over half a year away from release.
The 12 biggest sports gaming stories of 2007
December 31, 2007 by pastapadre · 9 Comments
2007 brought a lot of developments to the world of sports gaming. From leadership changes to impactful features it certainly was never boring. Having gone back on the coverage over the last year I’ve brought together the stories that had the most impact on the community as well as others that were more controversial. They were what shaped 2007 and had an influence on the future.
Continue on to read the top 12 stories of the year.
Sports games showing signs of life on the Wii
December 28, 2007 by pastapadre · 17 Comments
The Wii has been a juggernaut since launch. No one would be able to argue otherwise in the area of hardware sales. It has been out over a year and is still very difficult to find in stores. It sold nearly a million units in November and that is with the supply constrained.
However outside of a handful of first party titles, sales of games for the Wii have been somewhat disappointing. This is especially the case for third party titles which seem to go largely ignored by the user base. The Xbox 360 continues to sell more software every month than the Wii and PS3 combined.
This tends to be attributed to the casual crowd that the Wii attracts. Wii Sports, which comes packed in with the console, is the face of gaming on the system. Pretty much every conversation, story, video, or commercial about the Wii has it mentioned or shown. Some people have gone as far as to say that other games aren’t purchased as gamers have been so satisfied with the Wii Sports experience. Or they lose interest in the console once that initial excitement wears off. However the Nintendo crowd definitely has proven they’ll be there to support first party titles.
Top NCAA Football 09 cover candidates
December 27, 2007 by pastapadre · 128 Comments
With EA already teasing the cover announcement, it is time to look over the top candidates to grace the cover of NCAA Football 09.
Historically EA has gone for the most popular and dynamic player entering the draft. The are a couple exceptions though such as when they went retro with Desmond Howard in 06 and chose Jared Zabransky for 08 based less off the success of him as an individual and more on the overall excitement around the Boise State team. The cover also generally goes to an offensive player as the only defensive player to ever get it was Charles Woodson in 1999. The breakdown for the series has been six QBs, three RBs, one WR, and one CB.
This year there are two good defensive candidates, with one in particular having the name recognition that could make a difference. There is the obvious player who everyone would expect to get the cover. There are some sleepers that could be in the running if they declare for the draft. And there are also a handful of QBs and those would have to be considered since the NCAA Football series has slanted towards them in the past.
The evolution of sports gaming communities
December 26, 2007 by pastapadre · 30 Comments
A significant shift has occurred in the way the sports community interacts over the past two plus years. It has gone from a time when fan sites were prominent. Those such as Madden Nation and Madden Mania provided opportunities for people to extend the enjoyment they got out of a particular game.
Those two sites, that really drove the community for not only Madden but other sports games, have since become part of larger media sites.
With that shift the goals have changed to providing things such as reviews, news coverage, and strategies.
Whether that is a positive or negative thing really comes down to each individual. It is what it is and some people will find that more useful while others will desire the way the sites used to be constructed and controlled.
