The Human Face of EA

Electronic Arts is regarded as a publishing behemoth. Its release of yearly sequels and updates is relentless throughout the year. Its marketing spend allows it to flood the media and drown out its competitors. During the Christmas period, it practically owns the all-formats charts.

Critics accuse it of many things - it's a production mill churning out games with yearly tweaks, a machine fuelled by a workforce constantly grinding away to meet ever-looming deadlines. As the company has grown there hasn't been an unpleasant accusation that isn't slung in EA's face.

Publishers and developers work hard, none more so than the teams behind some of EA's biggest franchises. Ten minutes with an EA title is enough to show that such polished production values could not come from a team that wasn't powered by passion and dedication. Yes, EA is a savvy business like any other, but to accuse it of being a faceless factory is wrong.

"We're trying to be a bit more human," says David Gardner, executive VP and COO of EA's worldwide studios, during a quiet conversation at this years' Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. An event such as EIEF allows the ties and jackets to come off, meaning EA can relax a little without the usual publisher preaching associated with an industry event.

When asked what attracts such a large company as EA to a tiny event as EIEF, Gardner admits, "It's a very creative and multimedia event in the true sense of the word. And it's an intimate event where it's easy to be heard." So this is an opportunity to talk about the theories and themes of the games industry, not pounds and pence, spreadsheets and marketing budgets. "Absolutely, absolutely," he replies. "Have you ever been to E3?"

Gardner's keynote address to the EIEF focused on seven predictions for the future. These predications weren't necessarily anything new or surprising - the growth of user-created content, the reality of advertising in games and how it's good for business, the industry being largely misunderstood by government - but as Gardner openly admits, "Some will be enlightening, some will be agreed with and some will be misunderstood, but that's the fun of it all. It's nice to have a venue where we can talk, open up the floor to questions and answers and just see where it goes."

It might be a relaxed occasion, but it's not so slack that there isn't another representative from EA sitting to my right, monitoring the conversation just in case I throw in an obnoxious question about company practice.

While we're predicting the future, does Gardner see these smaller, more focused events playing a big part in the industry going forward? "Yes, and we've all seen the way that E3 is changing in order to become something of a more intimate event. I think at some point these events get too big and they are no longer human so they need resizing. And you have to break them down to get a handle on things," he says.

Gardner continues: "Interestingly, that's how we run our studios. Everyone says we're a big company, but actually we're a lot of medium sized studios connected together through our global distribution network. So it's a more manageable way to be and it gives people more identity and ultimately helps creativity.

"People don't want to be in a factory - they want to know who they're working with, they want to be intimately involved not just with the products, but their colleagues also. Employees want to have friends at work, love what they're working on and have passion for their products. I think the only way you can consistently do that - being a big company is helpful because we're stable and we have resources - but at the end of the day you have to break it down into dedicated teams."

Looking forward to the Christmas period, we begin to discuss the merits of the two new home consoles due at the end of the year. While Sony's PS3 is an all singing, all dancing home entertainment machine, Nintendo's Wii seems to be more focused on delivering something different - something that hasn't already infiltrated the living room via videogaming.

"It's an interesting question as to whether the Wii and PS3 are aimed at different markets," says Gardner. "I think this coming generation of consoles will see more dual-ownership that ever before. We'll see multiple machines in the home.

"Nintendo has come up with a very clever strategy by not trying to compete on raw horsepower and price but by trying to providing a difference," he continues.

"I think that is a logical way that they had to go. Given the technological advancements that both Sony and Microsoft were making it was going to be difficult for Nintendo to keep their space in the industry. So they've made a turn which is great for the consumer. Because now you have a little bit of difference when it comes to choice and I think people will respond by buying a Wii and something else.

"I don't know if they're announced the price but I've heard in Japan it's about $170; I don't know if the price has been set in Europe yet. As the production cycles go on in coming years, the price of the Wii plus something else will become affordable."

Gardner's enthusiasm for the Wii seems to reflect a feeling that Nintendo has provided a much-need spark of originality and audacity to the business of making home consoles. Does he think that the Wii can do for the living room what the DS has done for handheld gaming? We all knew what we were getting from a PSP - a PlayStation in your hand - but the DS was more exciting because it was unproven, and a little hard to get our heads around.

"Well, the PSP is definitely an impressive machine in terms of what it is inside the box, but again I think changing the user interface, having the touch-sensitive screen, just gives the player and the developer new choices and differentiation," enthuses Garner.

"There's no doubt that Nintendo is being creative and again it's good for the consumer, because it puts the right kind of pressure on other companies to continue to innovate - and that's the world that we live in.

It puts pressure on publishers like ourselves to innovate inside our games, to think of new ways to have fun and to keep our franchises fresh; how do we put new gameplay modes and moments in products to keep them entertaining? And sometimes having new hooks like a new interface, whether it's a stick or a motion sensitive controller, will help provide a new place to go with games and gaming."

The down side to new products is that they are unproven until they get into the hands of the consumer. "I think, candidly, we misread Nintendo when it first started this endeavour. But we became a believer when we saw how consumers reacted at E3," admits Gardner.

Does EA regret holding back until seeing the proof of the performance of a new machine, or does it pay to be cautious? "I don't think that we live under regrets. We're going to have a great line-up on Wii and I think it's going to be around long enough for us to have a good market position on it.

"Every developer and publisher started at a similar time so we're in good shape and don't have regrets. I think it's going to be an exciting Christmas."