14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports is one of the biggest moneymakers in the world of video games, the home of such huge franchises like FIFA and Madden NFL, but the division faces significant challenges going forward, including the possibility of no football and basketball seasons in the coming year.
Peter Moore, the outspoken executive at Electronic Arts, has said that one of the ways to push EA Sports games forward is to bring the titles closer to the community that supports them, getting them interested in all pre-launch aspects.
Peter Moore, who is the leader of the EA Sports division at publisher Electronic Arts, has told Gamasutra, “We are probably in year three of a very focused community management strategy that allows our consumers and our fans to provide us with feedback to give them platforms for their opinions as well as finding ways to be able to integrate that in a very public manner.”
He says that, going forward, his team will focus on working more with the fan community for all the titles it publishes.
He talked about Peyton Hillis and his appearance on the Madden NFL 12 cover, saying, “If there's a piece of real estate in video games that's prominent, it's the cover of Madden. There were 32 players, one from each team, and it all came down to Peyton Hillis and the fans have spoken... it's the first time we've ever had a player from a losing team the year before on the cover.”
Moore says that his division is also looking closely at the Kinect motion tracking system from Microsoft and thinking about how it could integrate it in upcoming experiences in the same way that the PlayStation Move was included in the latest Tiger Woods golf video game.
The biggest launches for EA Sports this year are Madden NFL 12, slated for the end of August, and FIFA 12, which arrives towards the end of September.