INTERVIEW PETER MOORE
LIFE IN THE BIG LEAGUES
He may not exclusively look after the Sports division anymore, but there’s few at the firm that understand FIFA and the football obsession more than EA COO Peter Moore. Christopher Dring meets the man himself to discuss the world’s most popular sport
T
he preamble before any interview tends to last only a few seconds.
We normally ask a basic question. Such as: How have you found the show? They give a brief response, and the interview begins. As MCV sat down with EA COO Peter Moore at White Hart Lane – the home of Tottenham Hotspur where EA announced its latest deal with the Premier League – it was Moore that broke the ice. “So what team do you support?” What followed was a five-minute
conversation about Leeds United. Moore regaled me about the glory years of my football club, which largely happened before I was born. I’ve heard these stories before,
of course. Yet to hear them from someone with such a distinct US accent is a novelty. What do Americans know about the beautiful game? Not that Moore is any typical American. Liverpool-born, he has been a football obsessive his entire life. But even if he never lived on our side of the Atlantic, that wouldn’t preclude him from knowing about UK football. In fact, over the last five years, football (or rather, soccer) has become the second most popular sport in the US. And the Premier League is watched by millions every week. “Earlier this month, more people
watched a friendly game of soccer than watched baseball in America,” says Moore. “That is stunning with regards
to the size of baseball and how many games are played. Over the summer we had nine Premier League teams visit. There was Spurs for a while, Liverpool, Arsenal,
August 29th 2014
Chelsea, Manchester United and City, going from place to place Wherever they were going there were huge crowds. “And our numbers for FIFA in the US continue to grow year after year.”
BIG IN AMERICA Of course, this recent US obsession can be partially tied to the World Cup. “It’s the sixth World Cup since I’ve been living in America and I’ve seen nothing like this,” says Moore. “That had a lot to do with how the US team were doing. But more than that, the drama of the Brazilian
we do. We introduce people to the sport. You can talk to kids who have never been to the UK but can tell you why Arsenal will always finish fourth. It’s based on what they’ve learnt through the game.” This is why, when I ask if FIFA
can realistically keep growing, Moore shoots me a look as if I had just asked a ridiculous question. “It better grow,” he says. “Not
We don’t worry about living up to our quarterly numbers. We worry about our
games’ reputation. Peter Moore, EA
collapse, and the timing of the games... it was almost like America stopped. Wherever you would go, whenever there was a game on, you’d look in and walk past a bar and everybody was watching the game. That’s huge for us.” And as the US’ love of soccer
grows, it’s through games like FIFA that these new fans become experts, says Moore. “FIFA never knows whether to
like this or hate this, but if you say ‘FIFA’ to an 18-year old kid, they’re going to say ‘video game’, not the ‘International Football Federation’,” he continues. “But FIFA gets what
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least because it’s a great game. We know we have a competitor that feels good about its product, too [Pro Evolution Soccer], and we’re not resting on our laurels. We’re coming off the momentum of a World Cup, we had a great season in the Premier League last year. When I think about the leagues around the world, eventually Luis Suarez will be playing in Spain [former Liverpool striker who was bought for £75m by Barcelona] and there’ll be interest there. What we’ve done well with our game, and via modes like Ultimate Team, is capture those exciting beats of the season as it goes on with things like Team of the Week and Team of the Season.”
PLAYING ALONE? FIFA this year is a bit of lone wolf in EA’s line-up. There’s no Need for Speed and Battlefield has been pushed back. Is there more pressure on FIFA as a result? “Not really,” dismisses Moore. “We have Dragon Age Inquisition. And The Sims 4 is big for us. People forget about that, but it’s a wholly owned piece of IP, which we can deliver on an open platform – the PC. And FIFA will continue to grow. “Quarter by quarter we don’t look at it that way. We moved
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