NEWS - Friday, August 6, 2004
Q & A With EA Sports
Yesterday, Electronic Arts announced a special members-only area within the Madden 2005 playing field. The Dodge-sponsored Premium Pass will give gamers who sign up all sorts of goodies, the most significant, according to EA, is the right to play with and against the highest most competitive Madden players in gamer-created leagues. EA Sports Nation vice president, Chip Lange spoke with GameSpot shortly after the news broke and explained why gamers benefit when deep-pocketed partners foot the cost of high-priced online features. GS: How will the Dodge brand surface in the game? CL: Inside the match-up lobby, and also your different pages throughout the EA Sports Nation Web site. For example, if you go onto the Web and check your stats, or if you're scouting an opponent…those types of pages are going to be presented by Dodge. GS: Is this really what the Madden gamer wants? CL: To give you context…a lot of our hardcore Madden guys have been asking for a place where they can get online and compete that was separate from the general populace. This feature set is going to enable these guys to have a backstage pass mentality. It's based on a couple years worth of listening to what league consumers wanted. Dodge has signed up to sponsor these features this year--and that [branding] will surface in the product inside the match-up lobbies. This is opposed to diving into a charge model this year. Read the rest of the interview hereSource: http://www.gamespot.com
