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."

Irony

[blool]

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.

Sega suicide

[Neon Aardvark]

The 32x and the mega-cd thingie killed Sega. The dreamcast was a actually a really good console.

But I can't be arsed to read the article and find out if he was responsible for those two abortions.

Re:In other words...

[witekr]

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.

Rip-Off

[Adrian Lopez]

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.'

Nah. Paying $49.99 for software that incorporates stricter DRM than a 99 cent iTunes song... now that is a rip-off!

Two lessons to be learned from him

[Anonymous Coward]

1. How to make lots of mistakes as a top guy in video game companies or divisions.

2. How to get people to continually decide a history of accomplishing #1 means they should hire you as a top guy at in their video game company or division.

I have to admit, I'm jealous of his talent for the above. According to the latest SEC filings, the guy is making $2.15 million in salary a year - and I'm sure he has plenty of options and benefits - so here's to hoping TFA articles gives me some insight into how to convince people I'm worth similar pay regardless of my competence or lack thereof.

Ahem

[gruntled]

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.