When you think of the EA Sports brand, what comes to mind? You probably think, "same game, new roster." You probably also know that most of the time whenever a sports game gets "improved controls" that spells disaster. When you think of EA sports some of you probably even think "2K is better."
If Peter Moore has his way, everything you think you know about EA Sports will no longer be valid. But how does one change the biggest powerhouse in gaming with out alienating hundreds of millions of fans?
"They’ve been with us for decades in some instances. To be able to grow the market you cannot lose that consumer but you need to invite more people in with an experience that is different from the one that the core enjoys and thoroughly enjoys.
"It’s a branding issue, it’s a positioning issue, and it’s a product issue but we’re on our way to solving it. You’ve got to have something that is easy to pick up and play but incredibly rewarding the deeper you dive in."
Moore wants to ensure that everyone can play all the sports games, not just the crazy hardcore Madden fans. He wants sports fans to play the EA Sports games, not just gamers. People who usually wouldn’t play an Xbox or a PlayStation are the type of people Peter is trying to open the door to.
"There are too many buttons and triggers and d-pads. We’ve got to break a lot of that down." It sounds a lot like Wii Sports, a bold thought indeed.
Peter Moore seems to be headed in this direction, and I think it’s a good thing. He’s focused on getting more sports fans involved with the EA Sports brand and that sounds like a good plan. Will that mean a hardcore and a softcore version of every sports game? It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Moore sums up his interview with Next Generation quite nicely by saying, "Our vision is to turn this from a videogame brand that is about sports to a sports brand that is about videogames."
