Every now and then, it’s good to have a person come out and speak on behalf of a faceless corporation. Sure, they’re all just out for blood, glory, and those bills in your wallet — but seeing a real, live person talk about the company that he or she works for does two things: (1) it proves they’re not all just robots who churn out products, and (2) it humanizes the organization and shows that they legitimately care about you, the consumer. In fact, the current CEO of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello, has ingratiated himself with our very own Jim Sterling by owning up to past transgressions.
Then, of course, you’ve got the Ken Kutaragis of the world — the people who are great for sound bytes. It seems that we may have found one of his disciples: Philip Holt, the General Manager of EA Tiburon (developer of every Madden game), was interviewed by Ars Technica before speaking at GDC this past week. The Q&A touched on such topics as the recent extension of EA’s exclusive NFL license, future projects for Tiburon, and the developer’s commitment to quality. But what caught my eye was a query about the perennial triumphs of EA Sports’ titles:
Ars: Looking at EA Sports' other franchises where there is competition, it seems like the EA titles are still the fan favorites. What is that secret recipe, that magic formula, that makes EA games succeed even where there is that competition?
Holt: That's a good question. It's hard to answer because it's the little bit of special sauce. Clearly, there's a level of...
EA Sports has published a lot of great games, and people used to wonder how they kept doing it, year in and year out. Well, now we know — and my guess is that EA hoards the recipe to that secret sauce like Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken do for their signature creations.
[via Ars Technica — thanks, Colette!]
Contest:
11:00 AM on 02.23.2008
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Wait, what were we talking about?
Lets look at some 1up scores shall we
NCAA March Madness 7.7
NBA Live 08 6.9 (2K sports NBA 2k8 was given a 8.0)
Madden is on a slight upswing but that one year where 2K really challenged EA with its last NFL licensed game led to great inovations inside the game. EA sports can't hold itself up to competition.
And being a humongo corporation doesn't hurt either.
They grow up so fast....*sniff*
I bought Madden 07 from my hook up at EA and it must have missed the special sauce becuase I played it for about 15 minutes before never playing it again. I was going to sell it at Eb but it dropped to $19.99 new so I look at it every now and then and shake my fist at it.
BRONX?
BRONX?!
BRONX!?!?
HOLY SHIT IT'S BRONX!
Before I stopped buying Madden games I bought the 2K sports one the year it was rated better than Madden and liked it. I think EA realized they had to do something besides going all out for Madden and just threw a bunch of money at it to get the liscense.
What would motivate EA to put more effort into Madden now that they really have zero competition because of the liscence? Not a lot I'm guessing.
P.S. I enjoyed giving you a "special sauce facial" through my sniper rifle last night in COD4 Bronx. :P
I'm not even going to waste your space here with a comment.
Ok I will.. I despise EA for what they did to Madden and the Monopoly of the NFL license and yes I know That the league has ALOT to do with that..but if it wasn't for EA parking a dumptruck filled with money..it wouldn't be.
It's not like the Devs that want to partake in something innovative have a chance in a bidding war with EA. It just plain sucks for the Football fans like myself who want true innovation..not lip service or new rosters.
I'm no fan of one company, any company, having exclusive rights, because of the effect it has on the games, but jeezus-on-a-stick, everything that's wrong in the world is not EA's fault.
You can go ahead and eat up the drivel that EA Sports puts out by way of Madden and smile about it, but I don't like the taste of shit.
Whining and bitching? What a joke.
Anyways I don't play many sports games. When it comes time to play some football I go outside. However, I do remember the EA sports NHL titles for the genesis. Those ate up so much of my time its ridiculous. I attribute NHL 95 to why I never finished Sonic 2 and 3 as a kid.
@mix: I did the same thing with Madden NFL 08 last year. The PS3 version sucked — I gathered that from playing it, like, four times — and I got rid of it on Goozex.
@Corak: I was so confused when we were playing Bloc and it said “Killed by [TOID]Corak”, because in the lobby, I saw that you got on to the game we were in...and I assumed you had accepted an invite that one of us had sent you. You bastard.
@everyone else: Thanks for noticing my promotion :)
Sports video games are only worth buying once or twice a console generation considering how much difference between each iteration. The popularity of EA sports titles has always boggled me.
even a complete douche knows that EA acquired exclusive rights to the NFL license just after 2k5 de-balled them ratings wise that year... =)
"I was so confused when we were playing Bloc and it said “Killed by [TOID]Corak”, because in the lobby, I saw that you got on to the game we were in...and I assumed you had accepted an invite that one of us had sent you. You bastard."
I did accept the invite, but for whatever reason it put me on the opposite side for I think 2 matches. I was like "what the hell why am I not on the same side as my party?" There were plenty of times where I was killed by a member of the TOID squad too. Then the party was restarted, all was well, and we started owning again.
Also EA, cocks, and what not.
That is, in fact, from motherfucking Gargoyles.
I had a post on how capitalism and this, and that. It's gone even though I saw the "comment published" screen. I never once saw it on this blog. Strange. So I'll just leave my comments dedicated to your awesomeness and your inability to be a bad dude.
Seriously, I've never seen you be a jerk on Destructoid. That's pretty cool.
Btw, if EA claim they have the special sauce, would you think the [s]Conuel[/s] [s]Cournel[/s]... *gets dictionary* COLONEL's secret recipe is owned by Valve, and that Level 5 is game developing equivilent of Subway?