ThunderEmperor
Banned
sorry if old, didn't see it posted but this shit is long
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11072§ion=feature&email=
GameDAILY BIZ: You brought up a good point with meeting the challenges of a worldwide launch, and in recent weeks there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft's possibly being unable to meet demand for its Xbox 360 this holiday. Does this concern you at all? If a lot of people can't get their hands on the new system, they won't be buying EA's next-gen games either... PROFILE
John Schappert
Senior Vice President, Group Studio General Manager
Electronic Arts Canada
History: Prior to his current position, Schappert was general manager and executive in charge of production at EA Tiburon. Prior to that he held a variety of senior production and development posts within EA.
Highlights: He co-founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994 and grew the studio from three original employees to more than 150 employees. Mr. Schappert has overseen the creation of more than 70 games for EA including the best-selling Madden NFL Football franchise.
Currently: As GM of EA Canada, John is responsible for the management of EA's Canadian operations, which is the largest game studio in the world, as well as EA Chicago and EA Tiburon. He oversees programming, artwork, audio, R&D, quality assurance, and more.
John Schappert: Well, I think as we usually see with all hardware launches supply usually does not meet demand. I think we anticipate that happening again this time; I hope that Microsoft has some great tricks up their sleeve and it could be one of the few hardware launches that bucks that trend. That all being said, I still think it's going to be in very short supply this fall and maybe there won't be as many consumers that want to get it that can get their hands on it, which in turn will mean we're only going to sell as many copies of our games as there are hardware units out there.
[Tammy Schacter, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications:] Can I just add that our strategy to be there with this depth and breadth of titles at launch isn't built around seeing massive sales at launch.
JS: At all.
[Schacter continues:] That's not what this is about. That is about positioning and establishing the visual and technological leadership and delivering games that fans want; making sure that we are giving them the ones that are their favorites. Like John said, the pillars of the industry, but from a sales perspective and a revenue perspective this year, that's largely current gen.
JS: We would love to see Microsoft ship a ton and we think we could sell a ton more, but the reality is we didn't embark to make these games using a business model to say, "Hey let's only spend this much to make this game because this is how many copies it's going to sell." These are strategic investments that we're making, and quite frankly, when you look at their little business model it doesn't look very pretty. It is limited by how many units of hardware are going to be out there, but it's important we get those franchises there, it's important to pioneer the platform, it's important we're a good partner with Microsoft, and we're doing that.
You know, we are not expecting these to be our moneymakers this fall. At the same time, we are expecting them to set a very high bar for Electronic Arts and the industry for ushering in next-gen gaming. To keep it in perspective too; again, I mentioned that these are brand-new engines rewritten from the ground up. If we wanted to maximize our profit, if you will, we would have just taken a port strategy. Take the current-gen engine; it plays well. Just up res the graphics, make it hi-def, and call it a day. It would have cost significantly less and it's one strategy and I think there are other companies out there that have taken that strategy.
That's not the strategy that we choose to take because we realize that this is setting the stage and it's setting the engine that we are going to use for the next 5+ years to make these games, so we want it to be great. So we had two teams working in parallel, in tandem, to make these games. We have our current-gen team and then we have our next-gen team. And our next-gen team is about the same size as our current-gen team because there's lots of pioneering to do; simultaneous software development while hardware is also being developed -- not easy, non-trivial. Again, you look at those balance sheets and the P&L and they're not our prettiest P&Ls this year, but the good news is we're going to make a lot of money on current-gen where there are a lot of consumers and a large installed base and we're going to be there for the next-gen consumers.
[ "It's a brilliant controller, and as usual we can credit Nintendo with being innovative... I think they continue to pioneer in our industry, so I think you will continue to see EA to be supportive of Nintendo." ]
BIZ: Right, as you just mentioned, although there's so much hype for next-gen right now, a lot of consumers will be sticking with current systems and publishers can't ignore that huge installed base.
JS: And you know what's really exciting and that I'm proud of because we are EA and we've been able to do all this, not only is it current-gen this fall, it's also the first Christmas of the PlayStation Portable. And what we've done hereof EA's first six titles, five of them came from Canada, the other one from Tiburon, if I recall. So we did an awful lot here, and we saw that platform coming; we banked on it and created a brand-new group just to focus on that. It's the same thing we've done with next-gen, so what I want to emphasize too is that the next-gen pursuit is not coming at the expense of current-gen, nor is it coming at the expense of PSP.
We didn't take the FIFA team and say, "Yesterday you had seven platforms. This year you have nine platforms; go do it." We've created separate teams, separate entities, and separate engines that these people work on. So if you look at our staff, it's gone up considerably over the past several years as we've prepared for these new next-gen systems and actually prepared for the PSP, which by the way a year ago, our last fiscal year we shipped a couple titles and that P&L did not look very good because again it's a very small installed base, very early. This year it's looking really darn nice. It's not an investment year anymore on that system. And it's paying for the investment in the resources necessary to do it, and it's not like we had to take away from our current-gen or our next-gen efforts to do all that. We've been fortunate enough to plan ahead and hire some bright people.
BIZ: That brings me to my next point. Companies have been hiring more, and spending more on R&D for next-gen. There's all sorts of talk about escalating development costs and rising game prices. You may have heard about comments from Epic Games' Mark Rein in which he said that publishers like EA and Activision are "covering up for mismanagement" and that raising prices is "bulls**t." How do you respond to comments like that?
JS:I don't think we respond to anything that he levies at us because I don't think that he is knowledgeable on all...
[Schacter interrupts:] We don't comment on anything specific that you tell somebody said because if this was a panel, we'd be able to engage in a conversation but we can't comment specifically to his statement.
JS: But if you ask me that question, from yourself...
BIZ: Ok then, I'll ask... Is $59.99 a necessary price point to compensate for the cost of development of a next-gen game?
JS: So what we have to realize is that premium titles are going to command premium pricing; at the same time, retailers set pricing, not us, so those are the facts. Secondly, as I've said, heck take a number of what you'd want to charge for this year's round of next-gen titles; we're not going to make much money on this round of titles, even if they are at $59 or possibly even higher, because of the limited installed base... That all being said, I think what you have to realize and what we feel, and we're feeling quite well, is on PS2 and Xbox we had a couple titles that went to DVD-9, dual layer, and that exceeded 4.5 gigs. All of our titles are dual-layer on Xbox 360 right out of the gate... check on what dual layer media prices are. They've gone down dramatically from last year, but they're certainly not the pennies that DVD media were. Likewise, when we launched on PS2 CD media was really inexpensive and DVD media was really costly and again many of our titles launched on CD and they quickly migrated to DVD to make up for the capacity. I mean, this system [Xbox 360] is hi-def, it's got 4X the resolution, so this artwork is 4X as high fidelity. Automatically it's 4X larger on your disc.
[Schacter:] Going into what goes into pricing, we really need to stress that it isn't the publisher that sets the price. It is the retailer that set the price. We haven't actually announced pricing for our next-gen games... some online retailers have set their own pricing, independent of us, but what John was saying, without going into the details of where the prices come from and what are all the costs associated with development, media and all the different factors, at the end of the day great product, premium products that offer hours and hours of gameplay, that are state of the art visuals, psychics and programming, command premium pricing. And that's a model that we've seen throughout the history of games.
JS: If you want more color, like I was saying on the fidelity and how much more it costs to make these games, certainly this is an investment year to create these engines and to pioneer the hardware, so you can't look at this as the typical, standard development year. Next year's going to be another investment year for the PS3. After that we fully expect costs to come down; we're not pioneering hardware anymore, we're not pioneering our engines anymore. We've solved most of the hard problems and can fine-tune our approach. But that being said, these are two investment years for us.
And the other thing to keep in mind is you've got 4X the resolution... 2X the disc space on the Xbox 360. And we've all read lots of stories about the PS3 and if they go with something even larger there's even more disc space to fill up. You talked about three processor cores and whether we were using and I told you, "Yeah we are," and think about that. In the past you had one line of code if you will, one processor core you wrote for. Now you've got three, so automatically that's 3X the work; that's just simple math that anyone can do right there. You can see how, yes if you fully maximize the power of these machines and you don't just take a simple port up strategy, you can see how they are more expensive to develop for... but once we kind of get our systems fine-tuned I think we will see our costs come down in the future.
BIZ: So you've talked about already filling up dual layers on a PS2, and some Japanese developers have already voiced concerns about being able to fit their games on DVD-9 for the Xbox 360. Are you worried about optical disc storage capacity on Microsoft's system?
JS: You know, every platform has its things that we will find over time that become things that we wish they would have done differently. At the same time, I think it's way too premature to call that on the Xbox 360. I mentioned that all of our games are dual-layer, but I didn't say that we were filling up the disc, and we certainly haven't filled up the disc on the PS2 dual layer titles either. So there's still room to go and at the same time, Microsoft -- you guys can talk to them -- is well aware of how platforms progress and how the need is there to put even more into the platform later in the cycle and I wouldn't be surprised if they've got some tricks up their sleeve in the future. I don't know what it might be, but it doesn't really concern me in the near term.
BIZ: Ok, looking at the next-gen platforms, how do you view the advantages/disadvantages of the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Revolution?
JS: That's a good question but it's very hard for me to answer.
[Schacter:] I think that's a better question for a few months from now; right now we're very focused on the 360 launch.
BIZ: Alright, well how about the Revolution controller? Does EA have anything special planned to take advantage of that unique input method?
JS:It's a brilliant controller, and as usual we can credit Nintendo with being innovative and neat and fresh and fun, and it's a really neat, different controlling device. I think they continue to pioneer in our industry, so I think you will continue to see EA to be supportive of Nintendo. We are great partners with Nintendo; on a personal level, I'm a huge Nintendo fan. I can't tell you how much I enjoy their games. I think they make some of the best games in the industry and we look forward to partnering with them on the Revolution and showing our support. No title announcements, but we did make an announcement that we are supportive of the platform and of the controller.
BIZ: How will traditional EA games work with the Revolution controller? It seems like a game like Madden or Need for Speed would be difficult to adapt...
JS: I think you're right. What Nintendo has created is something that is non-standard and is certainly non-traditional and games for that platform will need to be made and tailored just for that platform. Similar to the NDS, it has a d-pad on the NDS but we all know it's really the touch screen games that maximize the power of that machine. So yeah, I think you're right... but it's a bit early to talk about that stuff.
BIZ: Getting back to the whole format issue for a second. Blu-ray is already confirmed for PS3, and if it does win the format war, do you think this poses a problem for Microsoft?
JS: I think that's really a question more for Microsoft, but what I can tell you is, again, that every platform has some pros and some excitement about it, and the Xbox 360 is the first high-definition console that's launching. That's exciting, very exciting. The PS2 was one of the first DVD players I owned in my house. The N64 ushered in analog control and rumble packs. The Xbox 1 was one of the first consoles I went online with. So you look at Xbox 360 and it's ushering in hi-def gaming, and you look at the PS3 and that's going to usher inI venture to say itprobably one of the first, if not the first, hi-def DVD playback. The first way I'll be able to see hi-def movies at home. So yeah, I think that's a plus that Sony has on their side. How MS will react or what it will mean to the Xbox 360, I don't know. But I think it's exciting for us because we're going to be there on both systems.
BIZ: Has Sony given you any visibility into when they will launch the PS3 in the U.S. and can you share that with me?
JS: [laughs] You'll have to ask Sony.
BIZ: Well you can't blame a guy for trying... Ok, last question. Looking at the pricing situation again, if a casual mainstream consumer walks into a Best Buy or GameStop or whatever and sees the price tag on the 360 itself, and then the next-gen games, it would seem to be a bit of a turnoff for parents; it's such an expensive proposition to get into next-gen. Don't you think that if the industry is to reach a billion consumers and broaden the market on a global basis, as MS has stated, that prices need to come down, not go up?
JS: Here's what I'll say. I hope that that parent can walk in there and see an Xbox 360 and our titles this fall and this Christmas. I hope that there's enough supply so that they can actually go in there and see that.
Not that I want to bring up anyone else's games, but there's been a lot of press releases these days about successful MMOs; the most successful MMOs the last time I checked were the most expensive MMOs that have shipped to date on a purchase price basis and a monthly subscription basis, yet they are what, 8X more successful than the most successful MMO prior to them? So really, I think it's software that's going to usher in the larger volumes and the masses to come and broaden the market, and not necessarily price.
BIZ: Well, thanks very much John. I enjoyed
enjoy guys
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11072§ion=feature&email=
GameDAILY BIZ: You brought up a good point with meeting the challenges of a worldwide launch, and in recent weeks there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft's possibly being unable to meet demand for its Xbox 360 this holiday. Does this concern you at all? If a lot of people can't get their hands on the new system, they won't be buying EA's next-gen games either... PROFILE
John Schappert
Senior Vice President, Group Studio General Manager
Electronic Arts Canada
History: Prior to his current position, Schappert was general manager and executive in charge of production at EA Tiburon. Prior to that he held a variety of senior production and development posts within EA.
Highlights: He co-founded Tiburon Entertainment in 1994 and grew the studio from three original employees to more than 150 employees. Mr. Schappert has overseen the creation of more than 70 games for EA including the best-selling Madden NFL Football franchise.
Currently: As GM of EA Canada, John is responsible for the management of EA's Canadian operations, which is the largest game studio in the world, as well as EA Chicago and EA Tiburon. He oversees programming, artwork, audio, R&D, quality assurance, and more.
John Schappert: Well, I think as we usually see with all hardware launches supply usually does not meet demand. I think we anticipate that happening again this time; I hope that Microsoft has some great tricks up their sleeve and it could be one of the few hardware launches that bucks that trend. That all being said, I still think it's going to be in very short supply this fall and maybe there won't be as many consumers that want to get it that can get their hands on it, which in turn will mean we're only going to sell as many copies of our games as there are hardware units out there.
[Tammy Schacter, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications:] Can I just add that our strategy to be there with this depth and breadth of titles at launch isn't built around seeing massive sales at launch.
JS: At all.
[Schacter continues:] That's not what this is about. That is about positioning and establishing the visual and technological leadership and delivering games that fans want; making sure that we are giving them the ones that are their favorites. Like John said, the pillars of the industry, but from a sales perspective and a revenue perspective this year, that's largely current gen.
JS: We would love to see Microsoft ship a ton and we think we could sell a ton more, but the reality is we didn't embark to make these games using a business model to say, "Hey let's only spend this much to make this game because this is how many copies it's going to sell." These are strategic investments that we're making, and quite frankly, when you look at their little business model it doesn't look very pretty. It is limited by how many units of hardware are going to be out there, but it's important we get those franchises there, it's important to pioneer the platform, it's important we're a good partner with Microsoft, and we're doing that.
You know, we are not expecting these to be our moneymakers this fall. At the same time, we are expecting them to set a very high bar for Electronic Arts and the industry for ushering in next-gen gaming. To keep it in perspective too; again, I mentioned that these are brand-new engines rewritten from the ground up. If we wanted to maximize our profit, if you will, we would have just taken a port strategy. Take the current-gen engine; it plays well. Just up res the graphics, make it hi-def, and call it a day. It would have cost significantly less and it's one strategy and I think there are other companies out there that have taken that strategy.
That's not the strategy that we choose to take because we realize that this is setting the stage and it's setting the engine that we are going to use for the next 5+ years to make these games, so we want it to be great. So we had two teams working in parallel, in tandem, to make these games. We have our current-gen team and then we have our next-gen team. And our next-gen team is about the same size as our current-gen team because there's lots of pioneering to do; simultaneous software development while hardware is also being developed -- not easy, non-trivial. Again, you look at those balance sheets and the P&L and they're not our prettiest P&Ls this year, but the good news is we're going to make a lot of money on current-gen where there are a lot of consumers and a large installed base and we're going to be there for the next-gen consumers.
[ "It's a brilliant controller, and as usual we can credit Nintendo with being innovative... I think they continue to pioneer in our industry, so I think you will continue to see EA to be supportive of Nintendo." ]
BIZ: Right, as you just mentioned, although there's so much hype for next-gen right now, a lot of consumers will be sticking with current systems and publishers can't ignore that huge installed base.
JS: And you know what's really exciting and that I'm proud of because we are EA and we've been able to do all this, not only is it current-gen this fall, it's also the first Christmas of the PlayStation Portable. And what we've done hereof EA's first six titles, five of them came from Canada, the other one from Tiburon, if I recall. So we did an awful lot here, and we saw that platform coming; we banked on it and created a brand-new group just to focus on that. It's the same thing we've done with next-gen, so what I want to emphasize too is that the next-gen pursuit is not coming at the expense of current-gen, nor is it coming at the expense of PSP.
We didn't take the FIFA team and say, "Yesterday you had seven platforms. This year you have nine platforms; go do it." We've created separate teams, separate entities, and separate engines that these people work on. So if you look at our staff, it's gone up considerably over the past several years as we've prepared for these new next-gen systems and actually prepared for the PSP, which by the way a year ago, our last fiscal year we shipped a couple titles and that P&L did not look very good because again it's a very small installed base, very early. This year it's looking really darn nice. It's not an investment year anymore on that system. And it's paying for the investment in the resources necessary to do it, and it's not like we had to take away from our current-gen or our next-gen efforts to do all that. We've been fortunate enough to plan ahead and hire some bright people.
BIZ: That brings me to my next point. Companies have been hiring more, and spending more on R&D for next-gen. There's all sorts of talk about escalating development costs and rising game prices. You may have heard about comments from Epic Games' Mark Rein in which he said that publishers like EA and Activision are "covering up for mismanagement" and that raising prices is "bulls**t." How do you respond to comments like that?
JS:I don't think we respond to anything that he levies at us because I don't think that he is knowledgeable on all...
[Schacter interrupts:] We don't comment on anything specific that you tell somebody said because if this was a panel, we'd be able to engage in a conversation but we can't comment specifically to his statement.
JS: But if you ask me that question, from yourself...
BIZ: Ok then, I'll ask... Is $59.99 a necessary price point to compensate for the cost of development of a next-gen game?
JS: So what we have to realize is that premium titles are going to command premium pricing; at the same time, retailers set pricing, not us, so those are the facts. Secondly, as I've said, heck take a number of what you'd want to charge for this year's round of next-gen titles; we're not going to make much money on this round of titles, even if they are at $59 or possibly even higher, because of the limited installed base... That all being said, I think what you have to realize and what we feel, and we're feeling quite well, is on PS2 and Xbox we had a couple titles that went to DVD-9, dual layer, and that exceeded 4.5 gigs. All of our titles are dual-layer on Xbox 360 right out of the gate... check on what dual layer media prices are. They've gone down dramatically from last year, but they're certainly not the pennies that DVD media were. Likewise, when we launched on PS2 CD media was really inexpensive and DVD media was really costly and again many of our titles launched on CD and they quickly migrated to DVD to make up for the capacity. I mean, this system [Xbox 360] is hi-def, it's got 4X the resolution, so this artwork is 4X as high fidelity. Automatically it's 4X larger on your disc.
[Schacter:] Going into what goes into pricing, we really need to stress that it isn't the publisher that sets the price. It is the retailer that set the price. We haven't actually announced pricing for our next-gen games... some online retailers have set their own pricing, independent of us, but what John was saying, without going into the details of where the prices come from and what are all the costs associated with development, media and all the different factors, at the end of the day great product, premium products that offer hours and hours of gameplay, that are state of the art visuals, psychics and programming, command premium pricing. And that's a model that we've seen throughout the history of games.
JS: If you want more color, like I was saying on the fidelity and how much more it costs to make these games, certainly this is an investment year to create these engines and to pioneer the hardware, so you can't look at this as the typical, standard development year. Next year's going to be another investment year for the PS3. After that we fully expect costs to come down; we're not pioneering hardware anymore, we're not pioneering our engines anymore. We've solved most of the hard problems and can fine-tune our approach. But that being said, these are two investment years for us.
And the other thing to keep in mind is you've got 4X the resolution... 2X the disc space on the Xbox 360. And we've all read lots of stories about the PS3 and if they go with something even larger there's even more disc space to fill up. You talked about three processor cores and whether we were using and I told you, "Yeah we are," and think about that. In the past you had one line of code if you will, one processor core you wrote for. Now you've got three, so automatically that's 3X the work; that's just simple math that anyone can do right there. You can see how, yes if you fully maximize the power of these machines and you don't just take a simple port up strategy, you can see how they are more expensive to develop for... but once we kind of get our systems fine-tuned I think we will see our costs come down in the future.
BIZ: So you've talked about already filling up dual layers on a PS2, and some Japanese developers have already voiced concerns about being able to fit their games on DVD-9 for the Xbox 360. Are you worried about optical disc storage capacity on Microsoft's system?
JS: You know, every platform has its things that we will find over time that become things that we wish they would have done differently. At the same time, I think it's way too premature to call that on the Xbox 360. I mentioned that all of our games are dual-layer, but I didn't say that we were filling up the disc, and we certainly haven't filled up the disc on the PS2 dual layer titles either. So there's still room to go and at the same time, Microsoft -- you guys can talk to them -- is well aware of how platforms progress and how the need is there to put even more into the platform later in the cycle and I wouldn't be surprised if they've got some tricks up their sleeve in the future. I don't know what it might be, but it doesn't really concern me in the near term.
BIZ: Ok, looking at the next-gen platforms, how do you view the advantages/disadvantages of the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Revolution?
JS: That's a good question but it's very hard for me to answer.
[Schacter:] I think that's a better question for a few months from now; right now we're very focused on the 360 launch.
BIZ: Alright, well how about the Revolution controller? Does EA have anything special planned to take advantage of that unique input method?
JS:It's a brilliant controller, and as usual we can credit Nintendo with being innovative and neat and fresh and fun, and it's a really neat, different controlling device. I think they continue to pioneer in our industry, so I think you will continue to see EA to be supportive of Nintendo. We are great partners with Nintendo; on a personal level, I'm a huge Nintendo fan. I can't tell you how much I enjoy their games. I think they make some of the best games in the industry and we look forward to partnering with them on the Revolution and showing our support. No title announcements, but we did make an announcement that we are supportive of the platform and of the controller.
BIZ: How will traditional EA games work with the Revolution controller? It seems like a game like Madden or Need for Speed would be difficult to adapt...
JS: I think you're right. What Nintendo has created is something that is non-standard and is certainly non-traditional and games for that platform will need to be made and tailored just for that platform. Similar to the NDS, it has a d-pad on the NDS but we all know it's really the touch screen games that maximize the power of that machine. So yeah, I think you're right... but it's a bit early to talk about that stuff.
BIZ: Getting back to the whole format issue for a second. Blu-ray is already confirmed for PS3, and if it does win the format war, do you think this poses a problem for Microsoft?
JS: I think that's really a question more for Microsoft, but what I can tell you is, again, that every platform has some pros and some excitement about it, and the Xbox 360 is the first high-definition console that's launching. That's exciting, very exciting. The PS2 was one of the first DVD players I owned in my house. The N64 ushered in analog control and rumble packs. The Xbox 1 was one of the first consoles I went online with. So you look at Xbox 360 and it's ushering in hi-def gaming, and you look at the PS3 and that's going to usher inI venture to say itprobably one of the first, if not the first, hi-def DVD playback. The first way I'll be able to see hi-def movies at home. So yeah, I think that's a plus that Sony has on their side. How MS will react or what it will mean to the Xbox 360, I don't know. But I think it's exciting for us because we're going to be there on both systems.
BIZ: Has Sony given you any visibility into when they will launch the PS3 in the U.S. and can you share that with me?
JS: [laughs] You'll have to ask Sony.
BIZ: Well you can't blame a guy for trying... Ok, last question. Looking at the pricing situation again, if a casual mainstream consumer walks into a Best Buy or GameStop or whatever and sees the price tag on the 360 itself, and then the next-gen games, it would seem to be a bit of a turnoff for parents; it's such an expensive proposition to get into next-gen. Don't you think that if the industry is to reach a billion consumers and broaden the market on a global basis, as MS has stated, that prices need to come down, not go up?
JS: Here's what I'll say. I hope that that parent can walk in there and see an Xbox 360 and our titles this fall and this Christmas. I hope that there's enough supply so that they can actually go in there and see that.
Not that I want to bring up anyone else's games, but there's been a lot of press releases these days about successful MMOs; the most successful MMOs the last time I checked were the most expensive MMOs that have shipped to date on a purchase price basis and a monthly subscription basis, yet they are what, 8X more successful than the most successful MMO prior to them? So really, I think it's software that's going to usher in the larger volumes and the masses to come and broaden the market, and not necessarily price.
BIZ: Well, thanks very much John. I enjoyed
enjoy guys
