Peter Moore Confirms on YouTube Stream That EA Still Exclusive With NFL

[SolidSquid]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Ian left on his own accord. There is a lot of turnover in the software business.

Any chance he left bc he was being handcuffed from the guys upstairs?

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

I've never personally been mad at this exclusive deal, yeah it sucks to not have options, but if the game was so good I didn't need any I wouldn't care. I'm more upset at EA and Tiburon for dragging its feet with the series. I couldn't care less about 2k football at this point. I just want Tiburon to make me forget 2k football ever existed. They haven't come close to doing that yet.

This^^^ Perfectly stated.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by SolidSquid

That's a fair point. The problem I see if the dev team being changed before they get a chance to fix everything. I honestly thought Ian was gonna be the guy to bring the sim crowd what we wanted but was shown the door too soon.

Couple of things:

I believe Ian and a couple of other people from the team left on their own to start up their own company. Could be wrong though.

This whole suits/devs thing is simplifying it a bit. The suits (EA board of directors/Executives/Shareholders) saw a great business opportunity and they took it. In one swoop, the solidified their relationship with the biggest brand in American professional sports, boxed out their biggest rival and guaranteed that their game will be produced for years. Thats a great business move given the nation's demand for NFL football.

With that said, all they care about are sales. Sales among other things are what affects the stock price and thats their greatest concern. So their directive to the devs is simple.....create a game that will consistently increase sales.

If thats your directive, you would say to yourself "Who should I market the game to so that I can increase sales?" Now there are two views on this question here at OS:

1) Sim sells everywhere. Many believe that casual fans are just as interested in sim features as sim fans. If the features are implemented right, people will buy the game no matter if they are a casual fan or not. They use games like the Show and 2k as proof that people of all interest levels will buy a sim game.

2) Casual fans arent interested in complicated features or the majority of features sim fans are interested in. They could care less about things like draft boards in CCM or Formation Subs or Defensive Assignments. They just want to play Ultimate Team, play online and have fun. They have no real interest in depth. Also, Sim fans will buy Madden no matter what because they need a football fix. If you throw them a bone or two, they will still give EA their money.

Now, all of us would love if the devs took approach #1 but sometimes I wonder if this is realistic. EA has its own research department that surveys what Madden fans want and gives them guidance on what players want. I'm sure (based on the type of features they've added the last 10 years) that their research shows them that many of the sim features that we want and love are lower on the ladder than alot of modes/features we consider useless.

So think about if you were a dev: Lets say your boss says "I want this game to make money and I believe you should work with our research department to determine the best way to create and market the project"

What approach would you take? Approach 1 means that you are ignoring your boss' orders. It may work but if it doesnt you have to explain why you ignored his order. You probably lose your job because of it.

Approach 2 may not be the best approach but its the approach with cover. If things fail, you can always say "We did exactly what the research said and it failed so lets try something different."

In my opinion, Madden's dev team tried Approach 2. For 8 years, they created and marketed a game for casual fans with no regard for sim fans. The last two years, they have reversed course a little and sold their current approach to the suits. Now they havent reversed course quickly enough for me or many of us but it is clear that they are finally taking steps to bring this game closer to a simulation.


Sorry for the long post.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by SolidSquid

Any chance he left bc he was being handcuffed from the guys upstairs?

Doubtful. Ian was never some "sim" crusader. If anything during his time with Madden he realized that the sim community is hard to please. The OS community ran him off the forums a number of times.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by cowboy_kmoney

The NFL or better yet Roger Fakedell needs to get off this Greed trip and run this League the way its needs to b ran. At this point The Makers of Madden is just putting out anything and getting away with it. John Maddens Name is on this thing and its being dragged through the mud. Wow this really has gone to far.

The league is making more money than it ever has. Roger Goodell is doing his job very well in the eyes of the owners.


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[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Sorry for the long post.

I think it's more like number 2, the casual fans don't care about draft boards, formation subs, etc. And maybe even the custom draft features. They know from their sales numbers that the casual fans will come out and buy the game just to get their football gaming fix. And with the exclusive license the sim crowd have to get the game if they want their NFL gaming fix. Also if I was a suit for EA, I would take approach 2 because the number of casual fans dwarfs the number of sim fans.

[Cusefan]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Doubtful. Ian was never some "sim" crusader. If anything during his time with Madden he realized that the sim community is hard to please. The OS community ran him off the forums a number of times.

Excellent posts, absolutely on the money regarding Madden. I have to laugh though, this story get repeated every year or two and the reaction is literally the same here on OS, it feels like a glitch in the matrix.

While 2K had a great business plan with NFL 2K5, who would have guessed how much it bothered the NFL. The NFL apparently didn't like the idea of one of their games being in the bargain bin so they put a end to it. I would even wager that the NFL didn't like so many games with their brand on it being complete trash. Everyone talks about Madden, 2k, and even NFL fever; but we have forgotten the clunkers: NFL Quarterback club and Gameday. With a organisation that cares so much about its image, it's little surprise that they would entrust its likeness with the company with the best sales.


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[SageInfinite]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cusefan

Everyone talks about Madden, 2k, and even NFL fever; but we have forgotten the clunkers: NFL Quarterback club and Gameday. With a organisation that cares so much about its image, it's little surprise that they would entrust its likeness with the company with the best sales. Sent from my Motorola DynaTAC using Tapatalk

Hey if it wasn't for gameday we'd still be playing a 2d madden!