Andrew Wilson talks EA SPORTS

EA SPORTS broke with loose “tradition” today by holding a Winter Preview Event for media in San Francisco. These types of media demo days have been held in April for the last few years and have previewed the upcoming summer blockbusters. This year, EA SPORTS not only has a number of cool new games coming out in the winter for the first time in a while, they wanted to follow up on some promises made when presenting the summer lineup back six months ago. 

Before the event got going, we caught up with Andrew Wilson, the head of EA SPORTS, to find out more about what’s going on in the EA SPORTS world.

                                    

Q. What led you to host today’s event?

It’s been about six months since our now annual “Season Opener” media day, and we’ve had a lot going on since then that we wanted to update everyone on. We’ve learned a lot from this year’s games, and I think it’s important to be transparent about what we’re up to, what we’ve learned, what we’re looking to do in the future. The biggest theme for us is that we feel like we’re making changes to the way our fans are gaming and they way they’re experiencing our games, and we want to talk about how that’s going to improve the experiences we deliver in the future.

Q. What have you learned from the titles you’ve released this year?

We’ve had a great response to this year’s titles for several reasons, and one of those is the quality of the games we’re creating. Quality begins with getting the gameplay right, and FIFA and NHL are two titles that really stand out as having big years for us. They’re two of the most critically acclaimed games of this generation because they’ve established a clear blueprint – invest in gameplay, be authentic to the sport and create an unmatched social experience through digital services.

Q. You mentioned several reasons why your games have had a great response, what are the others?

We have to get the gameplay right, but it’s also about connectivity. We’ve talked a lot about taking the lead when it comes to transforming our industry through the creation of social experiences. We’ve talked about bringing our franchises to multiple platforms and connecting fans in a different way. And I think with EA SPORTS Football Club that’s coming to fruition and we’ve truly made something groundbreaking when it comes to our fans and their ability to experience our games in a new way.

Q. What makes EA SPORTS Football Club a groundbreaking social and gaming experience?

Football Club, which launched in FIFA 12 a couple of months ago, at its core is a live service. It’s fresh and new all the time. We take storylines from the biggest matches in real life and we inject new challenges into the game based off of those storylines. So we’re connecting fans in real-time to the real-world of sport. We also tie it to actual football clubs with the Support Your Club feature. For instance, I’m a Chelsea fan, so when I play Football Club I can choose to support Chelsea. Then when I complete challenges and play online I’m actually helping to control the destiny of Chelsea online.

Q. How have fans responded to EA SPORTS Football Club?                  

The response has been terrific. We knew when we created this that it was going to dramatically transform the way fans play sports games, and we’re already seeing that happen. When Manchester City beat Manchester United by 6-1 a few weeks the real world of football was stunned. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson called it the worst defeat of his career. United fans were devastated, and many probably wished they had the ability to go back in time and change the result. We gave them that opportunity when we injected that scenario into the game, and almost half a million people took on the challenge to try and avenge United’s humbling defeat.

Q. Can you give us some numbers?

Of course. Right now we have five million people connected to EA SPORTS Football Club. That’s in a little less than two months since launch. We issue two to three new challenges a week and in total our challenges have been attempted 32 million times. In the days after the FIFA launch we announced that we had set a record for the busiest day of online gaming in EA SPORTS history, since then we’ve broken that record a half dozen times. That’s not how games used to work.

Q. That’s the transformation you’re talking about?

Exactly. We’re getting farther away from the launch of our games, but deeper into the heart of the sports calendar. This is the first time we’ve been able to marry the real world of sports and gaming in such a meaningful way. We’re giving them ways to compete and engage and to keep getting real value out of those experiences.

Q. How do these renewed commitments to quality and connectivity play into the next games you have coming up?

Our winter lineup is really unique. We’re bringing some titles back in a fresh way. We have NFL Blitz which is a great revival of an arcade classic. We’ve combined the ultra-responsive controls and twitch gameplay with all-new cooperative modes and online experiences. SSX is just a beautiful game, and it’s playing great. When we talk quality we mean things like the deadly descents they’ve created for the fans. And of course, we have FIFA Street which has some of the most amazing skill moves I’ve ever seen in football.  It’s a ton of fun.

Q. Is there anything else coming up that you’re not showing us today?

We have a few other projects in the works,  and in particular I’ve got my eye on Tiger for Kinect.  I probably shouldn’t even be talking about this yet, but the guys are developing the most significant overhaul of the swing mechanic in over a decade. Just to give you an idea – with Kinect, we can scan more than 1000 data points in real time to recognize your swing. It’s going to be phenomenal.

Q. Any final thoughts to leave us with?

When we talked to everyone back in April we said that quality and innovation begins by fundamentally changing the way you play. We’ve made some great games this year, but you’re going to see a tangible increase in the gameplay quality in next year’s titles because we’re making investments now in technology and resources that you’re going to hear about soon. And a live service like EA SPORTS Football Club is helping us build our roadmap for what you should expect to see more of in the future.