Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[jmurphy31]

With this news and the release date being pushed back to August 30th it hasn't been a good day in the PR department of Madden. Which is ironic since this week is the start of their PR Tour. Maybe EA should release a small video or screen shot (wishful thinking) to calm everyone down and get the PR back on the right track.

[Crimsontide27]

I will fill in the blanks of this story when it is more appropriate. Several people have commited to leaving and the other 2 are trying to see if they can financially support this move as well.

Its not as risky on an individual level as you would think, but more so to the investor that is "helping" this process along.

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by Crimsontide27

I will fill in the blanks of this story when it is more appropriate. Several people have commited to leaving and the other 2 are trying to see if they can financially support this move as well. Its not as risky on an individual level as you would think, but more so to the investor that is "helping" this process along.

I have no idea how much credence to give this, but if there is a whole raid going on by the startup, then I expect there must be a good deal of disaffection on the Madden 12 team, which may be mutual as far as management is concerned.

Still, from a business perspective, if you're going to change out a team and reboot, this is not the way you want it to happen, for the sake of continuity and product quality. But that assumes product quality is a real priority for management, which may not be true. They may not see any ROI for making the game be as good as people around here would like it to be from a sales and profitability point of view.

This just smells like a division/studio with a lot of problems that are coming to a head. It feels to me like the business side has placed a lot of limits on the development team, but by the same token, I can't assess how good the development team would be on a product quality basis if they were given room to maneuver.

EA/Tiburon, if any of you are monitoring this, you really need to get ahead of this story before it becomes a drip drip drip of negative stories surrounding your product, since the online community will help set the narrative behind whatever the release story will be.

Of course, the best thing you could do for the brand would be to release a great game that breaks 90 on metacritic, and you haven't done that in a long time.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blitzburgh

Ok so... We have a new three year plan now...starting in 2012 I guess... It's a never ending cycle with this team. It's obvious their creative abilities are being stifled or you wouldn't want to leave! WTF EA let them make the game we all want!

Fatigue from working on the same kind of game year-after-year be damned. Perhaps the guys that left just wanted to, y'know, do something else?

[RememberMe12]

Some people enjoy Madden in its current state. More power to you and I am glad you are getting enjoyment out of it. In my eyes, I am all for change. Madden cant get any worse than it has for me.

[statum71]

The timing of this can't be good. Losing part of the team during development????

And those who think it won't matter because Madden 12 is pretty much done are sadly mistaking. I'm sure there's of lot of things left to do.

[lwendt33]

Great news...tired of the same old tweaks to Madden.

[LorenzoDC]

Quote: Originally Posted by statum71

The timing of this can't be good. Losing part of the team during development???? And those who think it won't matter because Madden 12 is pretty much done are sadly mistaking. I'm sure there's of lot of things left to do.

Yeah, the stuff that gets nailed down from here to the end are the details, details details that need attention in the wake of whatever product changes were made for this year's edition. That's a lot of finishes and bug fixes.

In other words, just because the creative and strategic direction are done, and maybe 85% of the main code drafted, there's a lot of testing and finishing to be done, and that work makes the difference between a really annoying game that gets panned due to inconsistency and poor execution, and a solid, professional implementation of a product game plan.

The game plan for the product may or may not be good, and may or may not be worthy of high ratings and sales. But even a great plan badly executed at the end could produce a fiasco.

The Madden base and brand would probably still sell reasonably well for one year with a metacritic rating below 80, but the brand would take real damage and it could take a long time to build it back up again.

That's the thing with brands. They take a long time to build up, and once you have a strong one, you can get away with some coasting on reputation. But the exclusive license is not cheap and any real damage to the brand could put the franchise at some real risk. And if that happens, it won't be just the developers who take the hit, but probably a few of suits as well.