Madden NFL Football is easily one the most popular titles in
all of video gaming history. A lot of
that has come from the ever-rising popularity of football in America and
another part comes from the creative product managers and marketers who
position the game perfectly for the evolving consumer market. I got a chance to speak with one of the most
pivotal people in this product management process, Anthony Stevenson of EA SPORTS in Orlando, Florida.
Hey Wear This
(Sports): First and foremost, thank you so much for your time. Let’s start off by telling me your current
industry position/job title at EA SPORTS.
Anthony Stevenson: Director of Marketing.
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| Image Courtesy of: EA Sports |
HWT: How long have
you been with EA?
AS: About 6 years. My
first launch was Madden NFL 08.
HWT: So you just had
your Madden NFL 13 release about two weeks ago, just out of curiosity how are
your sales numbers stacking up compared to previous years?
AS: We’re thrilled with the success of Madden NFL 13 to
date. We’ve broken day 1 and week 1
sales records and smashed previous highs for online usage. Sales are up high
single digits vs. last year, which is quite a feat considering the downward
industry trends this late in the console cycle.
HWT: Many will say
the amount of which you sell this game is outlandish because it’s basically the
same reproduced product year after year.
As a product manager, what do you say to combat this argument?
AS: Consumers are more savvy than ever. If we put out the same game, we wouldn’t sell
6M copies a year. A tremendous amount of
hard work and resources goes into driving innovation into each year’s
game. Our goal is always the same. Make last year’s game obsolete by delivering
the most authentic football experience ever.
HWT: What sort of
innovative features will we see in Madden NFL 13 that we have never seen in
previous editions of the game?
AS: How much time do you have? This year’s game is the single biggest
overhaul in franchise history. And
that’s not just coming from me, that’s written in the vast majority of our
product reviews from press, and more importantly, directly from our fans on
Twitter and Facebook. While I could go
on for quite a while about innovation, I’ll stick to the “Big 3.” It starts with the all-new, physics-driven
Infinity Engine, which delivers the most authentic gameplay in Madden
history. Simply put, no two plays in
Madden 13 will ever look or feel the same- and fans of the franchise will
notice this within seconds of playing this year’s game. Next is a new mode called Connected
Careers. In Connected Careers, you can
build your own legacy as a player or coach, or relive a legends. We’ve taken the best aspects of Franchise and
Superstar mode and combined them into one, socially connected universe. It’s truly a huge leap in sports game career
modes. Last, but certainly not least, is
our new Xbox 360 Kinect functionality.
For the first time ever, you can truly feel what it’s like to control
the line of scrimmage like an NFL quarterback or linebacker as you change plays
and direct your pre-snap offense and defense using just your voice. It’s really pretty amazing. Again, that’s just a taste of what’s new this
year. It’s easily the deepest Madden
we’ve ever created.
HWT: With the online
functionality in gaming as a whole users now have the ability to download
updated rosters and player attributes based on what is really taking place in
the NFL. Have you found this feature to be
less stressful because you can have users download updates or more stressful
because the users now want the game to be constantly evolving?
AS: Our entire brand is built on authenticity, so whether it
adds stress or not, our game needs to accurately reflect the current state of
the NFL all season long, and that includes player and team ratings. More than ever, Madden NFL is becoming less
of a product and more of a service.
Something you purchase, but continues to be updated over time,
continuously adding value back to the consumer.
HWT: What has EA SPORTS
done to identify, track, and eventually capitalize on their target market in
relation to this product?
AS: Wow, that would
take an incredible amount of words to adequately answer. Let me just say this, we have a
cross-functional team that is in the hundreds of people who are responsible for
bringing this game to market every year.
We are engaged in daily, if not hourly conversation with our consumers,
especially given today’s social environment.
Our fans don’t want to be marketed to, they want to be marketed with and we spend almost every minute of time in the office doing exactly that. Every decision we make is informed by our
consumers.
HWT: What always
seems to be a cool draw of the game are the cover athletes. When did that all start?
AS: Madden NFL 2001 with Eddie George. It’s evolved quite a bit since then,
especially over the past 2 years with the Cover Vote. I don’t think there’s anything like the
Madden cover in the sports entertainment industry. We are the new Wheaties box, and it’s pretty
cool!
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| Stevenson with this year's cover winner, Calvin Johnson. |
HWT: For the last two
years the Madden NFL cover has been presented in a tournament bracket style
where the power is placed in the fan’s hands to vote on who they want to see
represent the game. How did this idea
come about? And what benefits have you seen gained by implementing this format?
AS: The idea literally came from a 10 minute exercise at my
desk 2 years ago. We were facing an NFL
lockout and I wanted to come up with a way to turn all the negative consumer
sentiment around the NFL into positive engagement. It was
just before NCAA March Madness, so the idea to throw a bunch of player names
into a bracket just kind of clicked. Fast
forward to this year, we had 20M votes, 200M daily impressions for 8 straight
weeks, and unprecedented levels of social engagement. The Cover Vote is now the most successful
cross-platform fan engagement program in EA and ESPN history.
HWT: It seems that EA
Sports allows it’s marketing teams to be very creative in the ways they get the
Madden name out there. What other things
have you and your team done in the past few years to really go above and beyond
to market the game?
AS: You’re absolutely right.
We have an incredible amount of freedom to deliver unique programs and
touch points for our fans. In addition
to the Cover Vote, we have the annual Madden NFL Pigksin Pro-Am that airs in
primetime on NBC, which is a celebrity and athlete flag football game seen by
over 5M people each year. Thanks to the
success of that event, we are debuting the inaugural Madden NFL Skills
Challenge this holiday, which will air on ESPN, ESPN2, and NFL Network in
November. Plus, I’d be remiss if I
didn’t mention Madden Bowl, our annual Super Bowl event that features the
biggest stars in the NFL coupled with musical performances by some of the
greatest performers today, including Nas, Outkast, Snoop, and more. These events are absolutely unparalleled in
our industry, so we’re so proud to be a part of them.
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| Stevenson at this February's Madden Bowl in New Orleans. |
NWT: Can you tell me about
some ideas that we might see in the future editions of Madden?
AS: Nope. (laughing)
NWT: Last question,
you can’t escape the history of the “Madden Curse”. Many players such as Eddie George, Marshall
Faulk, Daunte Culpepper, Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, and Vince Young never
again had the production they had before gracing the cover of Madden. What are your thoughts? Real or ridiculous?
AS: It’s both. It’s
real, because you can’t run from the stats.
It’s ridiculous because usually our athletes grace the cover the year after a monster statistical season, so of course you are going to see
regression to the mean. As far as
injuries go, these guys are on the Cover because they have the ball (or are
chasing it down) more than any of the other players on the field, so injuries are going
to happen. How many running backs make
it through a season without injury….maybe 10-20%? I’ll tell you this though, the Curse is
definitely part of pop culture and we enjoy the conversation.
NWT: Thank you again for your time and best of luck to you in the future.
For more information on Madden NFL 13 or any other EA Sports
title visit their website: http://www.easports.com/
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