BIZ: What sort of data do you have on how strong the brand is, internationally?

Moore: When I first came on, my concerns were the "American-ness" of the brand. Powerful brand, strong voice, red, white, and blue, out of California, an American voice: Andrew Anthony, you know, 'It's in the game.'

You love it because it's very clear what it's about. It's a brand that resonates with 14 to 34 year-old males very strongly. And yet, in today's world, particularly in Europe, there's an anti-Americanism that sits higher than it's been for a long time, based on the war, the administration, George W. himself, and you worry about that.

And we were very worried that we weren't seen as a global brand. We went off to find out: does the logo work? Do the colors work? Does the voice work? Does the tagline work?

So we commissioned some research – and we didn't want to pitch ourselves against – no disrespect, but it wasn't versus Konami or 2K Sports: it was versus Nike, Adidas, and ESPN. And we asked the question, 'Which of these brands do you see as global? And which do you see as linked to a specific country?'

Nike, I think, has done a phenomenal job of being a global brand, and 33 percent of consumers said 'they're a global brand, they don't live anywhere.' They didn't say Beaverton, Oregon, even if they knew. 'They're everywhere.' ... Adidas a little less, because they're still seen as very Germanic. ESPN was in there as well, but they're seen as much more American.

But we were at 29 percent. So we were only four points behind Nike, with regards to being a global brand. A), have you heard of EA Sports, 'yes.' 'Do you believe they're a brand linked to a specific country?' And so the majority sees us as an American brand. But the good news is the majority of people see all brands as having their roots somewhere. But we have very strong numbers in relation to brands we admire, Nike and Adidas, in particular.

BIZ: You've talked about EA Sports becoming a major, international sports brand. That's sort of an extraordinary goal for a game developer. How do you pull it off?

Moore: Well, I think you look at the opportunities connected entertainment has right now. And if we were still in the world of [you] and I having to get together at our house on a Friday night to play Madden, or FIFA – very difficult to scale that, very difficult for us to be able to have a relationship with consumers around the world. The connected entertainment state now – particularly in sports – the overwhelming majority of people being willing to play online, play against their friends, play against strangers, allows us then to immediately spread our brand message – no matter where you are, physically.

And that becomes key. Secondly, we started to bolster the brand with doing global deals, such as with IMG, that's taking the EA Sports brand, and taking it out of its comfort zone, if you will – or where you would expect it to be found, and taking it to places like apparel, footwear, technology, educational sports camps, all kinds of different areas that we think – without stretching the brand too thin so that brand snaps – we can play and touch people in different ways.

In other words, if you look at the authenticity and credibility of who we are, we think we can go talk to non-gamers, in the same way we talk very effectively to gamers.

You're going to see us at retail, this year, making a brand statement that we haven't made in previous years. So, again, without making an announcement, we're going to be a branded retail destination within stores in North America much more so than in previous years.

BIZ: What about expanding the portfolio? Are you ever looking to do new sorts of games?

Moore: Facebreaker is just one example, and you're going to hear more over the next 12 to 18 months...

BIZ: Are they going to be traditional, or untraditional?

Moore: If you mean traditional as in 'simulated, authentic, and licensed,' you'll continue to see that. If you mean untraditional as in our own intellectual property talking to different consumers than the normal EA Sports, you're going to see that as well.

We recognize we need to balance our portfolio a little bit with building some of our own IP, as well as continuing to work with our partners and building their IP – together – we have no problem doing that, and have done very well over the past two decades. At the same time, we need to grow some things where we have more control over them. Facebreaker is one great example of, if you will, a lighter experience, but one of those classic games where it's easy to pick up, but not easy to master as you go forward.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that there are new consumers coming into games who don't necessarily want to sit down and play Madden for two-and-a-half hours on a 360 or a PS3 – particularly the new Wii consumer, who's maybe looking for a different experience, and of course the game input control is very different, and so we need to build games accordingly. We can't turn our back on that consumer coming in, because they are, I think, a huge opportunity for us to present sports to them, from EA Sports, in a very different way.

BIZ: My last question is going to be about Madden 2009 for the PC. You did say in your blog that you had ideas on how to revitalize the PC for sports games. Can you talk a little about how you can exploit the platform?

Moore: Well, it's disappointing, and as I said, it would be an unpopular decision, but we're running a business. It's been very challenging for us over the past few years. People took some of what I said out of context – 'serious business challenges on the PC.' Well, the sentence actually [says] 'for the sports category on the PC.'

And – rightly or wrongly – we've built sports games to take advantage of the plasma televisions, and the new hi-def experiences that people are having in their homes. We've also built them to be very social. So whether it's playing online, or equally likely, two or four of you in the room together, the PC business has just...waned. For every – I don't have the numbers, but for every...do you have the numbers yet?

EA rep David Tinson: I do. So to give you an example... Last year, for every 30 copies on PS2, we'd sell one PC. And that's PS2. We're doing things on the PC in other parts of the world, FIFA Online, FIFA Street Online.

Moore: The bottom line is we've got to bring games to the PC consumer in a different way than we currently are right now, which is a packaged goods model, yeah with online element – but there's got to be deeper online.

If that consumer wants to buy sports games and they don't want to play on their televisions – I recognize that. We need to find different and innovate ways to be able to do that. And I need to protect my intellectual property. Piracy's a big issue on the PC. I can't turn a blind eye to the fact that it's very difficult for us...and we lose money making a game. At some point, I have an obligation not to bring out products that lose money.

BIZ: Can you bring the mid-session model to the U.S. market?

Moore: It's a great question, something we're looking at. Mid-session games are certainly something we're learning an awful lot about. We're going to be with NBA in certain countries in Asia. And I think attracting a consumer, and as you know with a mid-session game, you either give it away for free, or for a nominal charge, and then, depending on how deep you want to get into the game, you download more stuff and do micro-transactions and bring more levels, or teams or stadiums...

BIZ: But it's a very separate development cycle from the console experience.

Moore: It is completely separate.

BIZ: People are used to a cross-platform approach, where you release the same game across all platforms every year.

Moore: Yeah, and to be fair, the lightning rod for that was Madden, and while I feel bad that people were upset we're not going to do it on the PC, we're still doing it on seven platforms.

BIZ: But many people were pointing out the irony of the "renaissance of PC gaming" you talked about while at Microsoft.

Moore: And you know what? I totally agree, and I'll stand by that, with Vista. But sports is not playing a huge role in that renaissance. Look at World of Warcraft, look at the great games – Crytek with Crysis – there are a ton of great PC games.

But...the PC is always a two-foot lean in experience. And I truly believe that the best way to enjoy a sports game is ten-foot lean back. That's just the way sports should be enjoyed.

And I may be wrong, and I know I pissed off a lot of people, but I made a business decision, and the team's made a business decision that we need to reset what we're thinking about the PC right now, and maybe come back to market with a very different idea and approach next year, but we have do what's right for our dev teams.

BIZ: Thanks Peter.