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Peter Moore Talks About His Experiences In the Gaming Industry
Over the past several days, the Guardian has posted a five-part interview with Peter Moore, head of EA Sports. Moore was also the president of Sega, and a vice-president at Microsoft, so his experience at the top levels of the gaming industry is extensive. He describes how he came to be employed by Sega, the development of the Dreamcast, and its subsequent flop when confronted with the Playstation 2. He also discusses his involvement with the development of the Xbox franchise, how the integrated hard drive "killed" the original model, and he gives his account of how the Red Ring of Death fiasco affected the company. The series ends with a look at EA Sports' plans for the future, and how they're trying to create a new business model beyond the micro-payments popularized by iTunes, which Moore calls "a rip-off."
Moore calls micro-payments a rip-off. I call Madden '97 to '08 a rip-off. No I didn't read the articles, I don't care what the head of EA Sports has to say. Not to be mean, but I've never played an EA sports game that was anything but mediocre. I'm not even against sports games in general, but my friends and I would much rather play NFL Blitz or Wayne Gretzky 3D hockey for the N64. These are games that are actually FUN, not just shiny.
The Xbox 360 and Dreamcast are not exactly failures. Sure, the Dreamcast didn't penetrate the market as well as it should have. That doesn't prevent it from being a great product that still sold (until the PS2 problem). And the 360, well, considering that it's the only modern console i'd ever think of buying these days (although I am probably just going to stick with my trusty PC) I would consider it a massive success.
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Sure, the Dreamcast didn't penetrate the market as well as it should have. That doesn't prevent it from being a great product that still sold (until the PS2 problem).
The Dreamcast problem happened mostly because Sega's other consoles managed to fail miserably. The Master System sold very well in Europe, and the Genesis (Mega Drive for all you people not in NA) sold very well all over. However, the addons didn't catch on as well as Sega had hoped for the Genesis. And the Saturn managed to basically fail. Wisely, Sega pulled out of the hardware business and now can make crap but sell it with the Sonic name and make decent sales.
And the 360, well, considering that it's the only modern console i'd ever think of buying these days (although I am probably just going to stick with my trusty PC) I would consider it a massive success.
Sure, the 360 actually made MS relevant for a while, but a few mistakes are going to lead to its downfall: A) Profit to loss margin. Every time someone buys a 360 MS makes no money on it. They actually lose money, same with Sony and the PS3, on the other hand Nintendo makes an instant $50 with every Wii console sold. B) HD-DVD. By supporting HD-DVD and then refusing to release a Blu-Ray drive, MS basically lost what the PS2's big selling point was: The next generation of video. The PS2 was a success not only because of the games made for it, but rather because at the time it was a cheap DVD player at the start of when DVDs started to become popular. With the rise of HD-TV and people refusing content that is not HD (I never can understand why, but then again I don't even own an HD-TV), Blu-Ray is going to push the PS3 forward. And lastly, C) The total cost of ownership. The 360 is like a bad computer, one that starts out cheap but requires a massive hardware upgrade to actually do anything. The $199 price point seems low, but when you realize that you have to buy an $86(!) wireless adapter to have the basic functionality of the $250 Wii. Not to mention that you also need to pay for online play, which, granted, Live is much better than the online services that Nintendo has to offer. Then you also need to buy a $50 hard drive to fully use it. This leaves you with a $335 console.
The 360 also has the RRoD problem and the scratched disk problem that may make customers not want to buy it.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
After RTFA, I would just like to point out that Moore doesn't call iTunes or micropayments "a rip-off."
After mentioning the 99c US price for individual iTunes tracks, the interviewer tells Mr. Moore that the UK price is 79p. Mr Moore responds "you're being ripped off." The inference here is that 79p is not equal, given to the exchange rate of US Dollars to UK Pounds, to 99 cents.
This is one of many (growing) examples of the /. summaries being inaccurate, sensational, and combative. I expect this from the comments. In the summary, I expect at least the pretense of some sort of journalistic integrity.
Sigh.
success of companies rarely depend on one man. and modern games are not made by a single man alone either. publishers dont let that much of creative freedom to anyone.
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I don't generally say this about people -- OK, Bill Gates -- but back when I was a journalist, I had occasion to interview Peter a number of times when he was with Sega. I'm sorry to say that he's an extraordinarily skillful liar. He has absolutely no compunction whatsoever about looking you right in the eye and flatly declaring something you both know is true is in fact false. It's quite a talent, but you've got to be a bit of a sociopath to pull it off properly.
Twenty years ago, if you repeatedly lied to a journalist (I mean really lied, not dodged or fuzzed or dissembled) reporters would just stop quoting you. We called it the death penalty. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, do a Google search for Larry Speakes, Ronald Reagan's press secretary, and you'll learn why you thought Marlin Fitzwater was Ronald Reagan's press secretary.
These days there's really no downside to lying to a reporter. Peter is a great example. You can probably think of a few others.
wait a second, there's a world outside the USA?
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
Nintendo always was around the same price point for their systems; they've been going the longest and know their marketplace well.
The Wii IS the next logical generation. The other two are a huge price jump to skip a generation ahead which was because they were marketing on penis envy to an older audience (who has that problem.)
As disposable income has gone down, we have 2 game systems that have gone up in price. When I was a kid, nintendo was a BIG purchase for my parents and the 80s econ wasn't as bad now-- plus having irresponsible debt wasn't as popular (for families.)
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