Peter Moore explains EA Sports' PC snub

42 Comments by Kyle Orland Jul 4th 2008 1:00AM
Filed under: PC, Sports

PC sports gamers are somewhat justifiably unhappy with Peter Moore right now. Earlier this year, the EA Sports executive announced that Madden and many other EA Sports games won't be coming to the PC market this year. But wait, you didn't give him a chance to explain! Well, actually, you did, and he did, but today Moore went into more detail about his division's scaled back PC support. A summary of the reasoning behind the decision:

PC sports gamers are gravitating to consoles.
The PC sports gaming market is gravitating to a downloadable model rather than a "packaged" model.
The PC versions of EA Sports games aren't getting a good enough return on investment.
You PC gamers just pirate everything anyway and we're not going to make a PC version just so millions of you can just steal it! (We may have exaggerated the tone a little bit on this one, but you get the idea).

PC Sports fans can still hold out hope that EA Sports will change its mind, though. Moore hinted that the company might be coming back into the PC space next year with "new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC." If there's one thing sports fans should be familiar with, it's squeezing that one, slim ray of hope for all it's worth.

Tags: 09, EA sports, ea-sports, EaSports, electronic arts, electronic-arts, ElectronicArts, madden, moore, PC, peter-moore

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Huey2k2: Jul 4th 2008; 1:07AM

Sports games are one of the few genres that consoles simply do better IMO.

Isaac: Jul 4th 2008; 2:10AM

I agree. I also subscribe to the idea that you can just you know... go outside and play sports? Where as you can't go out side and join an elite special forces unit that hides in boxes.

Huey2k2: Jul 4th 2008; 2:20AM

That's true you can go outside and play sports. But you can't go out and play professional sports in the top leagues in the world (not many of us can at least).

BigD145: Jul 4th 2008; 5:41AM

Sports games are one of the few genres that only a few people give a f'ck about. It's also one of the genre's where every single game depreciates in value no matter what console or OS it's made for. Here, I'll pick a random console. Pick any sports game for the SNES and I'm sure I can find it for a nickel or less. You'll pay more in shipping on ebay. Pick any other game and I'll find it for anywhere between a nickel and a few hundred dollars.

eminemd12obie: Jul 4th 2008; 1:11AM

wow the 10 ppl who buy these games r not gonna be happy

Mr.ESC: Jul 4th 2008; 1:28AM

Yes because everyone else download Ea games from torrents :P

Source Ea.

Awwww c'mon fuck a guy Ea.You can be like Steam and check the game license every now and then (I really don't mind unless they start to install crap that uses a lot of resources) but it's true not many Pc gamers like Sports games,I mean I've been a Pc gamer almost all my life and I've never bought a sports game like Madden.

The reason is simple:You get deeper games on Pc.I rather play Starcraft or Guildwars than Madden,is not like is not a good game or anything but unless you are a sports fan is hard to give a damn.I have played Madden demos in the xbox 360 and its pretty fun from time to time but I wouldn't buy it over a RPG or a RTS.

Ghen: Jul 4th 2008; 7:09AM

I pirate Xbox games too, wtfbbq.

zeldazeppelin: Jul 4th 2008; 1:55PM

lol i thought it was less than that that bought it on pc

Dwag: Jul 4th 2008; 1:12AM

True but they can do the same to consoles I have 1 on PSN friends who frankly ain't buying games at all aand on my 360 I have 3 friends(1 has been banned for it) that don't buy the games either it might nto be as wide spread but it still happens on consoles.

Still lame excuse PC gamers basically started the whole online play and now we exclude them. First MS,now EA hopefully those dudes that made the Crysis don't forget about PC gamers.

Huey2k2: Jul 4th 2008; 1:17AM

If a business looses money selling a certain product they will usually stop selling that product in favour of one that does make money.

People need to realise that the video game industry is first and foremost a business and that game development companies are out to make money. If they can't make money selling to the PC gaming market, they won't.

Tiptup300: Jul 4th 2008; 1:22AM

To pirate a pc game:

1. Download game from torrents
2. Unzip, follow instructions of installing
3. Play

To pirate games on a console:

1.
-If getting a mod chip goto 2
-If flashing using flasher goto 3
-If flashing using own setup goto 4
2. Buy a modchip, goto 6
3. Buy a flasher thing, goto 4
4. Connect to pc using sata cables, download flash firmware and flashing tool, goto 5
5. use flashing tool to flash the drive, goto 7
6. Solder in modchip, goto 8
7. put the drive back in the 360 and reassemble
8. Modify on-computer dvd-writer to burn discs
9. Download game from torrents
10. Burn in special way
11. Disconnect from live
12. Play

I wonder why they pirate pc games?

Tiptup300: Jul 4th 2008; 1:23AM

crap I forgot all the stealthing stuff, well, I guess I did the whole "Disconnect from live" so should be good...

Mr.ESC: Jul 4th 2008; 1:38AM

Tiptup300.

You forgot my favorite:

1-Go to a very doubtful site.
2-Download a game.
3-Wait forever to download it.
4-Realize it is a bunch of Spy-wares and Trojans (Not the condoms)
5-Cry
6-Spend all your evening deleting all the malware.
7-????
8-Profit.

Mr.ESC: Jul 4th 2008; 1:40AM

Or also.

1-Download a game.
2-Run it on your modded console.
3-Realize the game was actually a virus and just bricked your console.
4-Get mad until you cannot longer breath.

Tiptup300: Jul 4th 2008; 3:02AM

If you regularly pirate games you'll know which releases to get.

Although on the console side, some releases are purposely unstealthed so that you get banned from live.

Mr.ESC: Jul 4th 2008; 12:49PM

I don't pirate games.

Tiptup300: Jul 4th 2008; 1:16AM

Were the sports games ever on pc?

Cabal: Jul 4th 2008; 1:42PM

Yes, but ever since the EA got a near monopoly on the genre they sucked. They would always just port the PS2 versions which looked and ran like crap compared to everything else on the platform.

eldee: Jul 4th 2008; 2:08AM

If by 'scaled back' you mean 'scaled completely off'?

SonicRift: Jul 4th 2008; 2:12AM

I only play games on a PC when I don't want to pay for them.

OMGOMG: Jul 4th 2008; 2:57AM

The only sports game that was better for awhile on the PC was the Tiger Woods series. Now, they suck on both systems!!

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

theclaw: Jul 4th 2008; 3:36AM

It's not necessarily bad. They could do the right thing, returning later with an improved business model and better game engines.

Time off can be spend productively...

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392]: Jul 4th 2008; 3:53AM

To reiterate what I've written on this subject before:

AND NOTHING OF VALUE WAS LOST.

Jakka: Jul 4th 2008; 4:53AM

What kind of a PC Gamer would pirate Madden, let alone buying it?

No, Peter got it all wrong.PC Gamers don't pirate, they go on FIFA/NBA/MADDEN fan sites and download 150MB
2008 > 2009 patches.

zaglis: Jul 4th 2008; 5:16AM

Bullcrap!
If you dont want to see your game on torrent site release the game as a digital download ONLY(EA downloader, Steam).

Jakka: Jul 4th 2008; 6:14AM

That doesn't protect you from anything as you can still pirate Steam Games.

...yeah I went there.

zaglis: Jul 4th 2008; 12:52PM

99.99% of those apps are viruses

Jakka: Jul 4th 2008; 3:49PM

Yeah, that's why a lot less people are willing to mess with this shit.But with proper clients like PacSteam, it's almost as easy as torrents.

GenBanks: Jul 4th 2008; 5:23AM

I think PC gamers can collectively say: "No loss there".
Judging by the UK charts, PC gamers would rather manage the teams with games like Champ Man. We'll leave the playing of the actual sports to consoles ;)

(Although to those who say sports games are better on console, let me just remind you that you can easily plug an xbox 360 controller into a pc without any hassle, and you can also plug a pc into a tv. This is what I have done for GRID, and it looks drop dead omfg gorgeous)

Ralod: Jul 4th 2008; 7:53AM

OMG pirates be stealing my games!

Love that cop out:) If a game does poorly on the PC today it is not flaws in it's design, or issues with the game itself. It's those damn pirates.

Yet a well designed game that people like(sins of a solar Empire), with no DRM at all blows away much of the crap EA puts out. And has sales figures that show it as well.

In the end this is coming from Peter Moore. Could there be someone more into consoles than he is? If he could fuck a 360 I think he would.

nealbailey: Jul 4th 2008; 8:43AM

Ok so I realize that you pasty-faced virgins here on joystiq have never been capable of participating in competitive sports and are afraid of the sun and/or interaction with normal members of the human race but I assure you that sports games are huge.

So stop making retarded comments like... oh sports games depreciate or the 5 people that play them, etc. Get your heads out of your asses and think about what you say before you say it so you don't look like complete buffoons.

GenBanks: Jul 4th 2008; 10:49AM

Uhm..... Sports games does not = sports you arrogant tosser. So being muscular stud bears no relation to whether or not you like video games based on sports. The only person sounding like a buffoon is you.
Now quit making obnoxious dumb comments on >>gaming

nealbailey: Jul 4th 2008; 12:42PM

No, but obviously interest in sports video games derive from interest in the actual sport and since the vast majority of gaming nerds do not have the physical aptitude to participate in sports their dis-interest in the genre in gaming implied.

The point being made is that sports are big business in and out of gaming and simply because the nerds here have no capacity to participate in sport does not grant them the right push their impotence and insecurities on those of us capable of excelling in sports.

LaughingTarget: Jul 4th 2008; 9:47AM

Yet, right across the hallway, Will Wright is going to set the world afire with yet another multi-million selling PC game called Spore. I think it has more to do with PC gamers aren't dumb enough to buy Madden every year than anything else.

Shawn: Jul 4th 2008; 11:07AM

F you Peter, I want my "next gen" NHL 09 for my laptop you crummy bastard. There are a ton of people that still enjoy sports games on PC, especially people that travel for work and laptop gaming is the way to go. I'm sure as fck not lugging around my 360/PS3

GenBanks: Jul 4th 2008; 12:45PM

Take heart, here's to hoping that some smaller company will seize the opportunity to create a new sports franchise as a result of the EA behemoth leaving the arena. They pretty much have a monopoly on sports games, and PC games have good profit margins despite the piracy. So I'm sure someone else will step up eventually, even if we have to wait 5 years for that to happen.

Tridus: Jul 4th 2008; 11:13AM

Unsaid: PC gamers aren't dumb enough to keep paying EA for the same game with an updated roster every year.

thrasher: Jul 4th 2008; 11:47AM

Just like EA. Almost the same lines they used when they helped kill the dreamcast. But what can you expect from a company that just turns every franchise they own into a generic clone (NFS)or change it so much its not even the original product anymore (C&C; anyone?) instead of just always blaming piracy all the time how about making a game thats actually WORTH the 50 bucks? contrary to all the hype alot of bootleggers will buy a game they dloaded if its worth it. but when you dload 15-25 games a year and only one is really worth the money what incentive is there to give away the $$$ to a company that constantly treats its consumers like mindless idiots who wont notice the crap they produce? ( im sure its apparent i cant stand EA anymore, especially after what they did to C&C; BLEA!!

Ben: Jul 4th 2008; 12:04PM

EA sells a lot of games. If only 1% of the people who pirate all their games on PC go out and buy a console and have to start buying games, it will be good for EA.

Joe H: Jul 4th 2008; 3:05PM

No, the real reason he probably wanted to get rid of it on the PC besides the piracy issue is that he's tired of modders who are better at this than EA is. Take a look at MVPmods' MVP Baseball updates (I realize EA doesn't make that anymore because they can't) or CourseDownloads' huge number of other courses for Tiger Woods to see how much better people who do this in their spare time are than EA's people.

michas_pi: Jul 4th 2008; 3:12PM

What a dumbass. I'm not "gravitating" toward consoles. I still play FIFA 2000 for PC and I love it.

hunter: Jul 5th 2008; 11:56AM

buuuujuuuu bujuuuu piracy is killing EA bujuuuu.... sorry dudes but that worked in the old amiga times when there where 2,000 amigas and we heard that old threat again and again and again "amiga is pirate storm!!!! we are going to greaner pastures!!!" well, guess waht greener pastures are here and there is nowhere to go, pliansimple and ea forgets which platform has given the biggest BUCKS in thier wallets?? right PC + sims = best seller ever, if they are so afraid of piracy then why they don´t cancel sims 3 and spore and go console only right now??? the real reason why those ea sports games don´t sell is becuase they are garbage!!!!!! plain simple nothing more nothing else so just as pen and teller say: EA sports hurt by piracy is BULL***T!!!!!

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