Game Stooge

EDITORIAL: Peter Moore Brings Out the BS

• Scribbled on July 25th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
• Filed in Editorial Content, PC, Platforms, Sports, WTF

What happened to the intelligent person that worked at Microsoft? Is Peter Moore this stupid, or is he just spin controlling his ass off? In his latest blog entry, he states:

Whether it’s E3, or whether it’s in our forums, my belief is bringing in the fans helps us to create better games and bring new ideas to the market… Because of the fans, we’ve already addressed a handful of issues in NCAA Football and NASCAR

In other words, fans are unpaid Q&A testers who help fix games after they’ve paid hard-earned money for it. Another winning line:

We’d love it if every game was perfect, but in all my years in the industry I’ve never seen a game with zero bugs.

Even a 10 year old knows the difference between some bugs and being completely broken. Honestly, the slider bug, the edit roster crash, and the host of other problems in NCAA Football 09? The bug with the profile save in Nascar 09 that wipes every gamers progress and save in the game? Even the sloppiest of testers would have noticed this. It’s time for this yearly-update-sports-game nonsense to end. Especially when those “major updates” include mascot improvement. MASCOT IMPROVEMENT. Let’s not even discuss the nightmare that is EA Sports All-Play for the Wii.

Click “Read more…” for the rest of the article.

Glen Haag of Sportsgamer Blog mentioned in his July 20 podcast with Dan Clarke a conversation with a Madden developer, in which he admitted that the franchise mode and other aspects were a total port from the previous game, since the team had a 6 month development schedule. That’s right. SIX MONTHS. Keep in mind most fully developed games need 18 months. Ask Valve and Maxis, who’ve spent years on a title, just to get it perfected. 

Do you honestly think exclusivity has improved games? Look at the Madden and MLB 2K series and compare them to the NHL and NBA 2K series. Funny how the latter are great games with competition. (Though, kudos to MLB and 2K for not making it a total monopoly on baseball.)

Of course, Moore has been slinging cow patties ever since he joined EA Sports, first claiming PC sports gaming is dead, then hinting that maybe next year it’ll return despite “rampant piracy”. Whatever, Peter. Let us know when get that 2K Sports tattoo after NBA 2K9 wipes the mat with NBA Live 09. Of course, they won’t have any problem with College Hoops destroying their lame NCAA Basketball game anymore…