Tag Archives: jeff brown

EA has confirmed that it’s not currently working on any Wii U titles, and this includes FIFA 14 and the previously announced skip of Madden 25.

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“Welcome to the big leagues Eric. I know you’re new in the job but someone should have told you this is an competitive industry. You’ve got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you’ll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don’t believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk.” – Jeff Brown, EA corporate communications man to IndustryGamers regarding Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg’s gamescom keynote.

Kotaku has gotten its hands on an internal email belonging to EA, which suggests Infinity Ward put off releasing a map pack for Modern Warfare 2 at the request of the firm. The letter was released today as part of court filing in the Activision suit against EA and Infinity Ward co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West.

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EA has hit back at an anti-company rant from former company executive Mitch Lasky last week, saying he “needs to try de-caf.”

Burn.

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ESA said today that 90 percent of E3 2009′s floorspace has sold through.

More than 100 companies are attending the LA Convention Center show this year, which takes place from June 2-4.

“If you have a career in games or just love to play them, get out your calendar and circle the first week of June,” said EA comms boss Jeff Brown.

“The E3 Expo is bigger and better this year and for EA, the expanded format means we’ll have more demos, announcements, promotions and blockbuster games than ever before.”

More on GI.

During the annual company town hall meeting this week, EA’s John Riccitiello assured employees that despite Q3 losses announced on Tuesday, the company still plans to take risks with both new and proven franchises.

Comms boss Jeff Brown reiterated this when he told Kotaku: “We can take risks because we are pretty sure our blockbusters are going to generate good revenue that allow us some cushion. So we’re not living hand to mouth.”

With EA releasing more proven IPs to retail this year, Brown said this does not mean that there will be a lack of new titles.

“We are working on Dante’s Inferno, Dragon Age, things like that, new games, either announced or about to be announced,” he said.

“You will not be able to see a dramatic drop off original IP.”

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter does not agree, though, and feels that developers can’t afford to take such risks, referring to financial pickles both EA and THQ got themselves into last year.

“If you take too many in a row you end up with no money and no franchises,” he said.

“Even EA got in trouble last year doing way too much. The right idea is to have your core franchises and then take measured risks.

“It’s easier to sell a (bad) Iron Man game or a 50 Cent game with the right license and it’s hard to create a new Dead Space. The cost of potential failure (on a new idea) is too high.

“I think you’re going to see moving forward one new game a year from a publisher, not five.”

EA has slapped back at critics of Mercenaries 2′s “fully destructible Venezuela” saying those opposed to the title on political grounds are just being silly.

“All the controversy around this is kind of comical,” said EA comms head Jeff Brown. “At the end of the day you have to remind yourself it’s a damned video game.”

The game’s out this weekend on the US, which, according to this Reuters piece, is “likely to anger allies of President Hugo Chavez, a Washington foe, who has in the past threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States.”

We reckon Mr Brown may have a point, Mr Reuters.

EA communications head Jeff Brown has told GamesIndustry that Activision and Vivendi’s decision to leave ESA is down to a lack of strong management.

“I think having [Activision and Vivendi] pull out of the ESA reflects an unfortunate lack of leadership,” he said.

“They’re a big company and we feel that when you’re a big company you’ve got a responsibility to consumers to work on policy issues which are very, very important to consumers. And the best way to do that is with an industry consensus. That’s the way it’s been done with the ESA in the US, and with ELSPA in the UK.”

Brown added that EA was not reconsidering its position on ESA membership, but urged the organisation to make a strong case to remaining members for their ongoing participation.

“There’s always tensions inside these organisations, but for the most part it works,” he insisted. “So it was sad to see them step away from that responsibility. We hope that others don’t do that, but I think that the onus is on the ESA to prove that membership in it is good for the company and good for consumers. And I think we’re going to see the ESA redouble its efforts to prove that.”

More through the link.

EA communications boss Jeff Brown has claimed that no one at EA took seriously a comment from Activision boss Bobby Kotick that EA “did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired.”

“The truth is, everyone laughed,” said Brown, talking to NewsWeek.

“In the past year EA has made radical changes to decentralize the company and put creative control back in the hands of development teams. It’s too early to declare victory but if you talk to people like Patrick Soderlund at dice in Stockholm, Mark Jacobs at Mythic in Virginia or Josh Resnick at Pandemic – they’ll probably tell you that it’s working.

“They get a lot of resources and creative freedom. That freedom has already contributed new start-ups like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and Boom Blox and there’s a lot of others to be announced soon.”

All the studios we talked to at the recent EA Games Studio Showcase certainly only had good things to say about creative freedom within the “new” EA. What have you got to say about that, Bobby Kotick? Eh?

Take-Two shareholders passed a proposal at last night’s company AGM to grant ZelnickMedia, Take-Two’s manager, 1.5 million shares of restricted stock.

EA communications boss Jeff Brown immediately waded in on the news, saying the approval was like “asking your last employer to give you a million dollar raise and forcing your new employer to pay it.”

Take-Two only allowed shareholders before February 19 to vote on the matter, a date five days prior to EA putting its original bid public. Apparently, more than half Take-Two stock has changed hands since, effectively cutting 50 percent of Take-Two’s shareholders out of the vote.

Zelnick called the criticism “disingenuous” and noted that the company extended the opportunity for shareholders to put proposals on the ballot, which they did not do. EA, he added, knows how record dates are selected for shareholder meetings and there was nothing unusual about Take-Two’s February 19 cut-off.

More here.