EA Sports' Peter Moore

For some, the name Peter Moore will always be synonymous with the Dreamcast. For others, he will be best remembered as the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division, a.k.a. the Xboss. But for the past three years he's been at Electronic Arts, overseeing the company's sports business and developing an accent that sounds like what would happen if Keanu Reeves was spliced with Barry Grant.

So Moore no longer takes to the stage at E3 to show off temporary tattoos and appalling Rock Band skills. Instead he can sit down, relax and watch what his former rivals are up to. He's also got time to sit down and have a chat about it all with Eurogamer. Read on to find out what Moore made of the platform holder conferences, how he responds to accusations of milking the FIFA franchise and what he thought was the game of the show.

Eurogamer: Hello, Peter. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. Last time you and I met, it all went a bit weird.

Peter Moore: The last time you were trying to goad me into something... You were talking about [ice skater] Katarina Witt.

Eurogamer: There was some stuff about underwear.

Peter Moore: Did you ask me if they were real?

Football.

Eurogamer: I didn't end up using it, so it's now known as The Unpublishable Peter Moore Interview.

Peter Moore: I'm sure it'll be in the archives.

Eurogamer: It will be released to the general public 50 years after you and I are dead. Anyway, what brings you to E3 2010?

Peter Moore: First of all, I don't think I had a choice... No, we had a great press conference. From Need for Speed to Dead Space, then I was on stage with John Montana, who you may not know is a San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

Eurogamer: I don't even know what a 49ers is.

Peter Moore: They're a football team.

Eurogamer: Is he a striker or a goalkeeper?

Peter Moore: QUARTERBACK. Picks the ball up, throws it. He did game flow which is important for our US market, obviously. For our rather important Madden franchise. We showed Mixed Martial Arts, we did EA Sports Active 2, then we finished up with Madden.

Not football.

Obviously I'm interested in seeing what motion control is doing, and obviously Sony putting a lot of emphasis and importance on 3D. It's about making sure we're represented on all the new platforms with motion control, but at the same time being relatively selective, and making sure the experience we're delivering fits.

Eurogamer: Speaking of EA Sports Active - what do you think of Ubisoft's new fitness effort, Your Shape?

Peter Moore: I didn't get to Microsoft's press conference as it always conflicts with the rehearsal time for ours. What did you think?

Eurogamer: I thought it looked quite good, and I should know, because I am a woman, and therefore the target market.

Peter Moore: Yes you are.

Eurogamer: I represent all women.

Peter Moore: Of course you do. For me, I couldn't see whether there was true fitness in there. Not that I discount yoga. I did yoga once and I'm still achy. But I couldn't really see whether there was true cardiovascular as part of Your Shape. Maybe I'll have to learn more about it.

Eurogamer: Are you annoyed Ubisoft is jumping on your bandwagon? Or not, because you jumped on the Wii Fit bandwagon, so it's like a bandwagon on a bandwagon on a bandwagon?

Peter Moore: Which eventually crushes to a halt because of the weight... No. Wii Fit showed us there's a market for interactive fitness. But Active and Wii Fit are completely different experiences. We took an installed base of willing consumers and provided them with a more cardiovascular workout.

Go, Peter! Lunge for all you're worth!

A rising tide lifts all ships. The more interactive fitness products we can put at retail the better, because we're eating somebody else's lunch, if you will - which is the fitness business. We don't cannibalise sales of, say, Madden. I think we're talking to people like you, who are busy... Let's say

I've got 25 minutes in front of the TV. I want to do my workout, I don't want to pay for the gym. I don't want to work out in front of other people. I want to do it on my own terms, on my own time, and be completely in control of the situation.

Eurogamer: You sound like a strong independent woman, Peter.

Peter Moore: I am woman. I am Chaka Khan.

Eurogamer: Did you get to any of the platform holder conferences?

Peter Moore: I did get to Sony's and Nintendo's, yes. Microsoft, ironically, I can never get to, just because it coincides with our rehearsal time.

Hockey, apparently. Not what we played at school. Less skirts.

Eurogamer: How do you think Sony and Nintendo compared?

Peter Moore: Completely different. Nintendo did very well with the 3DS. Having seen it a few months ago I knew it would get a strong reaction. As for Sony, clearly 3D is a primary edict for the company from Howard Stringer down, and they believe it's a real game-changer. I thought they did a very nice job of finding enough exclusive content to differentiate themselves. I'm sure it felt like all three did well this year.

Eurogamer: On the subject of 3D, what did you make of recent comments by an Xbox exec saying there's not a market for this technology?

Peter Moore: I'm not sure... It reminds me of HD in 2003, 2004, as we were building towards the HD era of gaming. The difference with 3D is you've got to be able to make it applicable. It's going to cost more money because you're using two cameras, and unless it enhances the gaming experience it will be deemed as a gimmick - and maybe rightly so. But we're looking at it very seriously.

Eurogamer: Were you at the Project Natal Experience?

Peter Moore: The Sunday night thing?

Eurogamer: The space ponchos episode.

Peter Moore: The space ponchos episode... Sounds like something from Doctor Who.

Eurogamer: It was like something from Doctor Who.

Peter Moore: I was there, yes. I thought it was very interesting. Different.

Eurogamer: Interesting and different...

Peter Moore: Yes. Interesting because it's Cirque de Soleil. Different because... Whodathunkit? Cirque de Soleil, E3, motion control...

Eurogamer: I asked the readers via Twitter if they had any questions for you.

Peter Moore: Aaaaaaah.

Not Peter, although we wouldn't fight him either.

Eurogamer: Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter asked, would the Project Natal Experience have happened on your watch?

Peter Moore: That's a strange hypothetical... I don't know. On my watch we launched Xbox 360 with The Killers and Snow Patrol and Kasabian, instead of doing it at a trade show... So who knows? That was my watch and it was my idea to do that.

Eurogamer: Are you saying your idea was a little bit better?

Peter Moore: No. I'm saying that when I was there we did something very different and interesting, not a normal console launch. We did a lifestyle-type launch with cool bands. We got a lot of abuse, but that was interesting and different. Who knows? I don't know. I'm sure I found it very interesting and very different. And there's nothing wrong with either of those things.

Eurogamer: Here's another reader question, from @mkreku: what do you think of Dana White and the way he's keeping UFC fighters out of EA's MMA game?

Peter Moore: Dana has not kept them out. One of our cover boys is UFC fighter Randy Couture. We brought MMA to E3 this year with an actual match - I thought it was interesting and different to flip from the Nintendo press conference to a mixed martial arts fight in 24 hours.

Golf is probably more his thing. Moore his thing, maybe.

Dana has got a great US base and promotional fight circuit in UFC. We take a more global view. We're going to continue to invest heavily in the sport itself. Dana is Dana.

Eurogamer: Are you friends with him on Facebook?

Peter Moore: No I'm not. That is official. He's never asked me and I'm a little affronted.

Eurogamer: You could ask him! You could put your differences to one side!

Peter Moore: Yeah, no.

Eurogamer: Another reader question, from @thatrevchap: what is the situation with EA and baseball?

Peter Moore: That's a great question. We continue to be great fans of the sport. There are existing licences with Sony and 2K Sports and we wouldn't dream infringing upon those. But we've had great relationships with Major League Baseball and the Players' Association for many years. Those continue, but there are no announcements to be made right now.

Eurogamer: @lingmops says: are we ever going to get more SSX and if we are, can it be SSX 3 and not On Tour?

Peter Moore: SSX is a fabulous piece of intellectual property. You never say never, but there's nothing to say right now.

Eurogamer: Speaking hypothetically, if you were having a meeting about it coming back, would you suggest going down the On Tour route?

Peter Moore: Well, everybody talks about Tricky. I think we'd have to look at how you bring back SSX's snowboarding mechanic and make it relevant. It's been a number of years, some people may not even have played an SSX game. You've got to look at the current marketplace and Shaun White coming back again.

Eurogamer: Bringing back old franchises seems to be working for Nintendo - Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby...

Peter Moore: Kirby's Epic Yarn!

Basketball: not as easy as this makes it look.

Eurogamer: What do you think of that? Interesting and different?

Peter Moore: Kirby actually was a piece of yarn, by the look of it. Classic Nintendo. Classic Japanese humour. Like every entertainment company, you're always looking at intellectual property. You don't want to rehash things, you want to reinvent things, and only when they're pertinent to whatever the platform can deliver for you right now. We've got a bunch of stuff we could bring back, but only when the time is right.

Eurogamer: What about the skateboarding peripheral that works with that terrible Tony Hawk game? I see you're immediately shaking your head, Peter.

Peter Moore: No. If you look at what RIDE has done, I don't think the numbers bear out the cost of carrying that inventory, quite frankly... I don't think you need incremental peripherals that are that expensive.

Eurogamer: So no plans for an EA skateboard?

Peter Moore: No, there aren't. The peripheral business is a tough business. We're obviously right in the middle of it with the music business and it has to be very closely managed. The consumer, at some point, says, 'No more, I've got enough guitars, skateboards and turntables.' Then you have to very quickly turn that into a digital business.

Ummm, running out now. Skating is a sport, right?

Eurogamer: @TheKingOfSpain asks: would you have done better with Tiger Woods and the Move controller than the guy who did the demo at Sony's conference? He was terrible.

Peter Moore: No, I'm not sure I would. He wasn't terrible. It was Andrew Wilson - well, he's from Australia, he was looking at it upside down.

He struck the ground with the club on his first shot because he didn't quite get the angle of approach right, and that's what happens in real golf. So I think it's reflective of the fidelity of PS Move.

The last time I touched anything live from a code perspective was Rock Band, and we all know how that ended up.

Eurogamer: That was an unfortunate incident.

Peter Moore: Everybody says that. I thought it was funny. I didn't care. Yeah, it was funny. Yeah.

Eurogamer: Going back to E3 2010, what would be your nomination for game of the show?

Peter Moore: FIFA 11. Have you seen it yet?

Eurogamer: No. What's it about?

Peter Moore: It's about football.

Eurogamer: Do you get to be a quarterback?

Peter Moore: It's about FOOTBALL, Ellie! Come on, you've played FIFA!

Eurogamer: Oh yeah, Pro Evolution FIFA.

Peter Moore: Pro Evolution FIFA Winning Eleven.

Eurogamer: Speaking of which, @maxhughes asked me to ask you how long you're going to milk the FIFA franchise?

Peter Moore: Milk!

Eurogamer: He used the word milk.

Peter Moore: Milk!

The Sims 3. You can probably make them do sports.

Eurogamer: Milk.

Peter Moore: We don't milk! We provide unbelievably realistic and authentic football experiences for tens of millions of people around the world. That's not milking anything.

Eurogamer: Not even gently squeezing?

Peter Moore: No! Not even caressing! We help build the FIFA brand and we made FIFA cool. That's not milking. That's embellishing.

Eurogamer: There's a fine line between milking and embellishing.

Peter Moore: Embellishing is what we're doing. Nobody's ever accused us of milking anything.

Eurogamer: The internet is accusing you of it right now, Peter.

Peter Moore: The 12 angry men on the internet aren't always correct. That's a weird way of looking at it. I mean it's such a great football experience. No, we're not milking it. No. FIFA 11. Check it out.

Eurogamer: Going back to the game of the show, if you couldn't pick one of your own games...

Peter Moore: Can I do another EA title? Dead Space 2.

And Risk: Factions, because Yeti Vs. Cat war SHOULD be a sport. And that looks a bit like a trophy in the background.

Eurogamer: No, you can't.

Peter Moore: The rules change as we go along!

Eurogamer: I'm making them up as we go along!

Peter Moore: I haven't had a chance to walk the show floor yet. I do like Kirby's Epic Yarn. I thought it was cute, different, fun. I haven't seen Kirby in years.

Eurogamer: Well there were all those drug problems, he had to retire from public life.

Peter Moore: Yes, he's just out of rehab. If I understood what I was seeing correctly, Kirby is actually a piece of yarn. I thought it was very cute. It kind of made you smile out loud. Smile out loud? Bring a smile to your face. Type of thing.

Eurogamer: The most interesting and different game at the show?

Peter Moore: Yes, but that's from a guy who hasn't left this room much.