Well
sports fans, I hope you had a great weekend watching the NFL’s conference
championship games.  Be honest, how many of you predicted the Arizona
Cardinals - the Arizona Cardinals?!? - would be in the Super Bowl?  Keep
an eye out later this week for our official Super Bowl simulation, where we
predict the winner of Super Bowl XLIII using the Madden game engine.  Of
course, this one is worth reading, since we’ve correctly predicted the winner
five of the past six years … don’t even get me started about last year, and
don’t blame our game for that one!  We’ll make our announcement by the end
of the week, but in the meantime let me know who you like between the Steelers
and Cardinals. By the way, as a Cal fan who followed DeSean Jackson’s career at
Berkeley, I was delighted to see him have yet another strong game yesterday,
even if it was in a losing cause. He had a brilliant 4^th quarter TD
catch, he’s a great friend of EA SPORTS, and of course he was on the cover of
the PS2 version of NCAA Football 09.

Meanwhile,
as fun as yesterday was watching two great games, my eyes will be peeled an
important game at Anfield today, with Liverpool taking on Everton, our
rivals from across Stanley Park. I have not seen the team selection yet, but if
Rafa does not play both Torres and Keane together up front then I fear we are
tempting fate against what will be a very determined Everton team who have had
a tremendous run of late.

Before
we close the door on one of the lively discussions that was breaking out here
over the past couple of weeks, I want to come clean on my promise to play World
of Goo.  While I do have a day job, I had to at least download the demo
and have a hand at the game before I moved on (trust
me, I have pictures to prove it coming soon).  By every admission, I am
more of a sports guy and this isn’t my default cup of tea, but there’s a ton to
admire in something so simple, yet full of impressive physics that make for an
elegant and somewhat addictive experience (even in the demo!). 

You’ve
heard me talk for some time now about making our games more approachable and of
our need to deliver more compelling direct to consumer experiences.  
There’s a lot to learn from the EA alumni who started 2D Boy and built
something as creative and unique as World of Goo, with such a small team and
little money.  It’s that type of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit
that can really drive innovation, and I’d like to think we’re setting the right
priorities and taking the right steps to deliver more experiences in this vein
from EA SPORTS. 

As such,
it’s been encouraging to see the feedback on a few of our newest projects
coming in the next couple of months.  While we may have more than two or
three people working on them, they are a far cry from what it takes to make a
new Madden or FIFA, yet still a ton of fun and hitting the market at a time on
the calendar when, in years past, we had little shipping as we geared up for
the start of many of the major sports seasons in the summer and fall, and with
them our annual simulation products. 

Yet in
the next three months, we’ll launch 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, a $10
downloadable game that’s already one of ESPN’s most anticipated new games of
the year and a blueprint for many more inexpensive, approachable, and downloadable
experiences from EA SPORTS in the year ahead; NASCAR KART Racing, the first of
at least three EA SPORTS products that will be either exclusive to, or lead
with, the Wii in 2009; and the EA SPORTS Complex, launching for free this
spring on PlayStation Home.  I also know many of you await our plans on PC
this year, and I think there are learnings here as well, beyond just downloads
for console gamers, for going online to deliver compelling experiences to the
PC community as well.

If you
have any plans to be in Montreal this weekend for the NHL All-Star game, be
sure to stop by and get your hands on 3 on 3 NHL Arcade.  Our
producers will be there demoing it for fans.  And, of course, if you want
to lob in your predictions for the Super Bowl, be my guest.  I’ll have to
wait and see what Madden tells us before I start placing any friendly wagers…

Cheers,

Peter

P.S. And
thanks to Megan from D3 for the copy of Bangai-O Spirits. I look forward to
playing that on my next extended airplane journey.