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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tiger Woods Online: My new addiction
Posted on January 26, 2010 at 11:40 AM.
In the words of a wise man: "Free is good."

Tiger Woods Online is free. Tiger Woods Online is good.

I've been playing at least a few rounds a day for a few days now, and I can honestly say I am totally in love with the game. It is what I would expect an online golf game to be built around the Tiger formula.

After you find the right settings to play with on your computer, you will find the game plays much like any other Tiger game. EA literally put a full version ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Thursday, January 21, 2010
An (overly) simplistic analysis of a new release model
Posted on January 21, 2010 at 12:15 PM.
I'm going to dive into this issue a bit further tomorrow, but today I just want to play with some numbers so we can see how feasible a subscription based model might be for sports games. It seems there is a populist kind of movement starting by sports gamers where we want companies to focus on quality and go to an every other year release cycle while using some sort of DLC/subscriptions to fill the gap on the year a game isn't released. So let's look at some simplistic math drawn from arbitrary ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Are sports games losing their mojo?
Posted on January 20, 2010 at 12:50 PM.
The year was 2005. Madden was among the best sellers in all of gaming. NFL 2K5 was a $20 hit which captured the imagination of those who played it. Both NBA games sold pretty well and even NCAA Football 2005 was a big seller.

That was then.

When you fast foward to 2009, you see that every game franchise did not sell nearly as well as it did in the previous generation. And sure, while you could make the argument there are less people on next-gen consoles than on the ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Monday, January 18, 2010
NBA Live: Quality comes, but the sales don't
Posted on January 18, 2010 at 03:03 PM.
NBA Live 10 did just about everything right in terms of quality. In almost every sense of the word, the franchise improved once again this year, putting it on at least a competitive footing with NBA 2K.

But when it comes to sales, it doesn't appear to be close.

By all accounts, NBA 2K10 is dominating the basketball games sales charts. In fact, it is very likely the combined sales of NBA Live 10 and NCAA Basketball 10 are not even close to outselling NBA 2K10. There ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Is MLB 2K10 Doing Enough?
Posted on January 17, 2010 at 01:11 PM.
I honestly do not envy the folks developing Major League Baseball 2K10.

MLB 2K is the source of blame for Take Two execs on why the company isn't quite performing as well as investors anticipated. There's no doubt the expectations run a bit higher with MLB 2K at Take Two, mainly because the game has to be a cut above in order to be profitable thanks to the expensive MLB exclusive license signed by Take Two. And then there's that 9000 lb. behemoth standing over MLB 2K's shoulder: MLB: ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Friday, January 15, 2010
December NPD Report: Madden among top 20 sellers
Posted on January 15, 2010 at 06:52 PM.
The December NPD report is out and it is pretty positive for sports video games and video games in general. Here are some quick highlights:

  • Madden, Wii Sports Resort and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter games were the sports games listed in the monthly top 20 sales. Madden came in at #15 for the 360 and #19 for the PS3. Wii Sports Resort was #3 last month and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games came in at #14 on the Wii.
  • Both the Wii and the PS3 set records for sales
... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
While most of Tiger's sponsors and endorsers have jumped ship with the golfer, EA has stuck by it's man.

But is the company having second thoughts?

Kotaku reports that survey company Greenfield has a survey to survey customers about their feelings of a Tiger Woods product released by EA Sports.

The survey reportedly asks questions such as "EA SPORTS makes a Tiger Woods video game. Has the controversy made your impressions of EA SPORTS more or less favorable, ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Former head of EA Mobile slams EA's "bankrupt" strategy
Posted on January 15, 2010 at 12:30 PM.
Former head of EA Mobile and founder of Jamdat, Mitch Lasky, absolutely slammed EA and it's leadership on his personal blog this week. Lasky criticizes the business model of EA Sports saying the company has been slow to switch to a digital subscription/variable pricing model and has entered into costly and unprofitable licensing deals.

Quote:
It's remarkably hard to kill a company doing $4 billion in revenues. But with flat or down stock performance since Q3 2003, how long are the institutional
... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Madden License in Jeopardy? US Supreme Court could decide.
Posted on January 15, 2010 at 11:52 AM.
D-Day is quickly approaching for the NFL and indirectly, the Madden NFL Football exclusive agreement.

Sure, you may not remember the case (or maybe you do), but the US Supreme Court will now see it and it will likely have vast implications throughout sports gaming. In case you missed it, American Needle is still suing the NFL for what it deems an unfair exclusive agreement the NFL made which cut into American Needle's business of making NFL headwear.

And while the case ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Difficulty Levels...a new way forward?
Posted on January 13, 2010 at 02:22 PM.
I've always thought there had to be a better way to do difficulty levels.

Let's face it, it seems as if many sports games over the past decade have been even more shady than Wall Street Bankers when it comes to disclosing exactly how their difficulty levels work. Granted, many teams have gotten better over the past few years, but there is still a bit of a mystery as to exactly how All-Madden differs from All-Pro or Amateur is different from Veteran.

I think it's time ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Madden NFL 11: The Speculation Commences
Posted on January 12, 2010 at 02:24 AM.
Madden fans across the vast world wide web are abuzz tonight after EA CEO John Riccitiello fired the first bit of information out about Madden NFL 11 in a conference call with investors.

Riccitiello initially said about Madden that there would be "an innovative and new take" on the game. IGN quotes one of those wonderful unnamed inside sources who said about the announcement on Madden, "This is an innovation that changes the game significantly…and no one will see it coming."
... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Monday, January 11, 2010
EA cuts fiscal 2010 forecast significantly
Posted on January 11, 2010 at 05:23 PM.
Certainly not good news for the Video Game giant:

Quote:
EA forecast that earnings, excluding items, for the year ending March 31 would be 40 cents to 55 cents a share on non-GAAP revenue of $4.125 billion to $4.2 billion.

It previously forecast earnings of 70 cents to $1 a share on revenue of $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion.
EA definitely is suffering from bad sales, with reports that several of it's AAA titles have missed sales forecasts, including Madden. This is just another negative ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Retro is the new cool in gaming
Posted on January 11, 2010 at 04:09 PM.
Is it 1994 or 2010?

I read about a new NBA Jam being released while also playing a side scrolling Super Mario game on my Wii today. I think gaming might have just jumped the shark.

What is with gaming's sudden obsession with going old school?

I have a couple of theories, one of which is that using tried and true formulas are the safe ways to perhaps make profits in the tough economic times of today. Another reason could certainly be traced to the fact the people ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Sunday, January 10, 2010
My Top 5 Games of 2010....
Posted on January 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM.
Every year, I always select my Top 5 games for the upcoming year as a bit of a pre-season power poll sort of thing. This year is no exception and I think my Top 5 is pretty solid this year. Here are the games I feel are going to be the best of the best when the dust settles on 2010 in over 350 days:

1. MLB '10: The Show
Given what we know, and given the series' track record, MLB '10: The Show is my pre-season favorite to be the game of the year once again. SCEA San Diego has ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Friday, January 8, 2010
In their list of 2010 predictions, the Los Angeles Times listed a buyout of EA as one of their top predictions for the new year.

Quote:
Disney will buy Electronic Arts Inc.

Having bolstered its ranks of cartoon characters with its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, Disney will finally make a run at video game publisher Electronic Arts, whose games include the lucrative Madden Football franchise. The deal will again trigger speculation that Disney will unload ABC. But Disney
... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary

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