Peter Moore now COO at EA, more execs change jobs

@Shadowbender

Peter Moore seems to keep falling upwards. He must be great in a boardroom, because his tenure heading the Xbox during the RRoD debacle, which seemed to have cost him his job, and the unremarkable stint heading EA Sports (where his first act was to resurrect NFL Head Coach) don't make his continued promotions sure things, and yet, here he is!

@i77ogical - Don't forget his time at Sega during the Dreamcast era.

(To be fair, I don't think the RROD was his fault, any more than the Dreamcast's failure was.)

@i77ogical

Actually Peter moore quit because his family was unhappy and he wanted to move back where they used to be. if you read interviews about it, he talked about it, he didnt want to leave, but decided it was best for his family.
Peter was hardly the reason for the RROD, that was a design flaw, engineers were responsible for that, and there were other executives like Robbie Bach that would have had the last word.
He was at Reebok during its very successful heyday as well.

I miss him being the spokesperson for the Xbox, the others havent had near the personality.

@i77ogical During Moore's tenure at EA the company went from universally loathed to acceptable.

During his tenure at MS he took a console from 12 million in total sales to upwards of 50 million and took huge marketshare from the giant in the field.

As a person who admires brilliant marketing there is no better than Moore in all of videogames. Nintendo Reggie isnt fit to lick his boots. he was simply in the right place during a technology shift. Now he is being shown as the nincompoop he always was.

@Fearmonkey
@Fire Walk With Me

A proud guy like Peter Moore is never going to say in interviews, yeah, I was forced out of Microsoft. But there is definite evidence that he was.

The timing of his departure from MS was suspect: he left just as MS was coming to terms with a one billion dollar write-off for the RRoD fiasco. Moore didn't design the Xbox 360, but he was in charge when it was designed. A leader takes the hit for the design team he oversees. A higher up like Robbie Bach certainly isn't going to take the hit, guys.

And think about it, one billion dollars is enough of a cost to unseat even the most popular executive. And Moore was good at being opinionated, which had to have given him some rivals and enemies within Microsoft.

Then there's the curious choice of changing jobs, going from running a successful console division, which is just beginning to turn a profit, to babysitting annual Madden releases as head of EA Sports. A guy with Moore's ambition, and ego, took a much smaller job and it doesn't wash.

And you mention the growth of Xbox under Moore. Well, growth has continued after his departure in the hands of quieter leaders. The fact that MS didn't replace Moore with another outspoken leader says something as well. Moore gained noisy publicity, trash talking rivals and making bold statements that weren't necessary. Moore promoted Moore. It's probably why you guys like him, but running MS isn't a post-game screen of Halo. It's a business position that requires some discretion.

I'm not saying "don't like the guy." He's a self-promoter though. The goal is to promote the games and the developers who make them. It's why we buy video games, for the games, not for the executives twelve layers up.

@xiLeShadow

As far as my elf eyes see, Mass Effect 3 looks bloody good. And Mass Effect 2, the title of a game that instantly triggers smiles and applause--let's not forget that.

@Shadowbender

Mass Effect 2 was piss poor in RPG elements. ---> Brought sadness to my soul. It was a good Action game, I'll give you that.

I'm not going to hype Mass Effect 3. Bioware is showing off "We aren't an RPG developer anymore" hat and I'm not a fan of that, being a fan of RPG Bioware.

Dragon Age 2? hahaha

Bioware can correct my views though.

@xiLeShadow

Well I'll be honest, I didn't bother with DA: 2, but you mirror my brother, and many others on the "Mass Effect 2 lackluster as RPG" side of things. Let it be known that I respect that opinion, but it honestly makes me furious. What is the basic function of an RPG? To allow players to fully step inside the role of a character as he lets his own ingenuity run wild in a vast and developed world, and in today's standards, the player makes a mark on said world with his own actions. The common-Western RPG, for me, is like acting in film or theatre, where the actor must truly believe in the existense of himself and the environment around him to fully be invested.

One of ME 2's strong points was described dead-on by Luddy in the GOTY review of the game: The magic of ME 2 is when you look at the door of say, Miranda's office, and you are given the impression that she really is behind that door, instead of it really being an unrendered piece of cyberspace. This is a game where screw-ups are really screw-ups, and tension is true tension, and the many relationships you gather with each character and this entire universe are REAL relationships.

And I think in that vein Mass Effect 2 succeeded above and beyond, and is one of the best RPGs ever created.

@Shadowbender

It does that pretty well...a linear tho but good.

I'm not bashing the game, its pretty good. I'll give Mass Effect 2 an 8/10.

It is just kind of hard to be risen up with Bioware being an RPG-centric developer, but then they completely change and put RPG elements in the backburner in favor of the common Action theme.

@Shadowbender

As a huge RPG fan, I cry hot tears over comments like yours, because I know they are in the majority. Mass Effect 2 is one of the most celebrated video games in history, which is like Forrest Gump unseating Citizen Kane as best movie ever made.

Mass Effect 2 is just a sad piece of garbage with an artistic shine. I say this with lament, because I know few of us see it. The fakery that ME2 uses to con people into thinking it's a great game is so obvious to me.

ME2 is a linear, dumbed down adventure game, not an RPG and should never be called one. If you want to play an action movie, with the boring results that action movies give us these days, ME2 is your game.

Hopefully real RPG makers will resist the trend of turning thoughtful games into nursery school. Bioware can have the masses.

@OGC

The game won't be Free to Play. Mostly likely carry the common 14.99$ a month MMO fee.

If it makes you feel any better, EA already stated that The Old Republic has more pre-orders the Battlefield 3.

@OGC

A few years ago i use to think ftp was the way to go but after playing a ptp game i realized you get what you pay for.

@cantwait2bhome

No, more like EA "Press a Button, Something Awesome Has to Happen".
or EA "Super Action Game".

@JC Freeman You can bet that EA is only keeping that label for brand recognition. If BioWare was a lesser know entity it would be blighted with the letters E and A somewhere in the label. Oh, I will be sobbing here in my corner at what may very well be the loss of a great and unique dev, the blight is slowly rotting BioWare away. At the very least I need them to provide a strong finish to Mass Effect.

@EMH

Huh, that didn't post under akeso's post. Weird. Apologies.

@EMH
I actually do think that Bioware has lost its way in recent years.
Mass Effect 2 was an attempt to cater to a larger market. While it successfully did that, it alienated many of the previous games fans, I.E. myself.

Dragon Age 2 was much of the same: it took a game that was over half a decade in the making, crammed it into 2 years and tried to make it more casual friendly to compensate. When it flopped, the designers started posting rants on their forums about how we just didn't get it.

Finally, as someone who is part of the beta program for Old Republic, I can only say it hasn't done anything to lesson my hatred of E.A.

E.A. has taken what was once a house of slow cooked and thoughtful I.P.'s and turned it into a shovel-ware rpg pressure cooker.