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Tweaks, Updates And Curses, EA’s Chris Erb Talks Madden 09

August 12, 2008

Favregate has come to a conclusion with Brett Favre throwing dead pigs for the New York Jets and EA Sports offering up pre-release DLC in the form of new jacket covers. But what are the reactions from the people who actually created Madden NFL 09? Well besides the suits. Favre and Green Bay’s dirty laundry airing all over television, the new cover athlete’s reputation changed from hardworking everyman to diva, and the rising specter that the Madden Curse hit before the game even went to retail? You can’t pay for that kind of shit. EA Sports Market Director Chris Erb sheds some light on plans for updating the game, the possibility of a 10-megaton Curse, how the internal team reacted to Favregate and the fact they were kind of banking on Brett not hanging up the cleats.

Das Gamer: What’s it been like around the office with Brett flip-flopping around and everything?
Chris Erb: One, I think it’s been a long story. To be honest with you I’m glad we’ve got a resolution. We’re part of the football stuff, so it’s been fun to watch from the outside. We’ve worked so close with Brett Favre for a long time, so we’re happy that there’s a resolution there and it seems like he’s going to be happy. The only way we really look at in the office is we’re pretty stoked to watch Brett Favre play…again [laughs]. We’re not fans of any of these particular teams, but the fact that I can turn on the TV on Sunday now and watch Brett play kind of makes me happy. When we chose him as our cover guy, we had said, “Look, he’s either going to retire, or he’s going to play for the Packers again.” We were ready for either of those. We were really hoping that he wouldn’t retire, and he’d play so we could watch him play some more. If he retired – we understand – we’ll go with it. He’s the right choice for us. So now we’re at a third kind of area that we didn’t predict too much. At the end of the day we’re really excited that Brett’s going to play again and we’re going to get to participate in that.

I talked to Peter Moore at E3 about this actually. During E3, there was still a lot of question marks. I think at that point in time he “had an itch.” That was where things were at. I asked him what would happen if he gets traded to another team, and he mentioned the fact that you were already printing the game. He did say that you guys had some sort of contingency plan in place. Besides the new game jackets, what happens now?
Chris Erb: The key is to remember – Madden is a video game. It’s about the software. We’re going to have a roster update on launch day with Brett Favre as the quarterback of the New York Jets. Right now we had him in the game as a free agent if you will – because he wasn’t committed. But you’ll be able to trade for him from whichever team you are. Now we’ve got a team to put him on – which is great.

So Packer fans, like me, can do what they want to do and bench Aaron Rodgers and put Favre where he’s supposed to be?
Chris Erb: Absolutely. Don’t get the roster update right away so he’s a free agent and you can sign him. Or, if you get your roster update I’d trade him back to the Packers if I were you.

Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond are handling the commentary this year. However, since Brett wasn’t on the Jets officially until last week, are you guys planning on having a patch somewhere down the line where you’ll have additional commentary that talks about the situation with Favre and the trade?
Chris Erb: As a Packer fan you want me to add a patch that essentially says, “What a mistake by the Packers.” You want the ability to populate that any time you want while you’re playing? [Laughs]

In a word: yes.
Chris Erb: Of course you do. [laughs] I think that’s a funny idea. We feel the same way. For the first couple of years for the next-gen the idea was to put consumers on the field, and hear a radio announcer. We’ve listened to the feedback and people want to be back in the booth, and have a broadcast style presentation. We’ve re-hauled the whole thing. We think it’s great. I think Cris Collinsworth is really talented, and I think he gives you more than you would normally get from that position.

But in the game now he gives more of a back story on star players, and situations and things like that. Can you guys somehow add a patch that adds that commentary?
Chris Erb: I think it’s a great idea but the way the audio works is that he pulls different pieces – like he’ll pull the name Matt Hasselbeck, and then they pull together – looked tremendous. The commentary is not as engaging as it is on a network where they can talk about things that are happening around the game. Most of the commentary that’s in the game is mostly based with what’s seen on the field. He’ll be commenting more on what Favre did on the last play, and the play before that more than the things happening off the field. We won’t be patching that stuff. To be honest, if we had more of the off the field type stuff in there that would be something we would consider. Since what happens off the field doesn’t really reflect through the commentary, it’s more about the on the field things. We feel like we have a really good commentary set now and a patch isn’t really needed for those for the type of commentary we run.

So having someone like Brett Favre on the cover amidst all of this controversy – it doesn’t even matter what channel you have on – he’s everywhere. What kind of value can you put on this free marketing that you’re getting with having your cover athlete all over every medium?
Chris Erb: It’s fun. We watch it, and it’s like, “Oh, more Brett!” It’s fun to watch it and engage with it because we’re so close to our game and working with Brett. Look, we’re all A: Excited to watch him play again, but B: People are talking about Brett Favre and we’re four or five days away from launching the biggest videogame – we think – in the industry and everybody is talking about our cover guy. You don’t see people talking about Master Chief on all the stations. It is fun to see our guy be this popular and big. It’s fun to start the controversy and people were curious on how we would react to it. I think we have a great solution of being able to make Brett Favre the starter for the New York Jets on August 12th. I think that speaks well to the industry that we’re in, and the technology that we have. The ability we have to take our product and update it to make it as current as possible.

Are you going to ship copies of the game with new art?
Chris Erb: No, we are not going to swap out the art that’s in the game, or even on the package. Brett Favre is going on the cover as a Packer. We signed our NFLPA license in 1994 and in 1995 was the first year that we had real players in our game. Brett’s been with us the entire way. That was one of the reasons we decided with our 20th Anniversary to celebrate it with Brett on the cover, and we did that based on his tremendous season last year. The kind of guy he is, the type of player he is – what he meant to us for the last 15 years. So we think going in as a Packer made a lot of sense, and it doesn’t make any sense to take that away at this point.

How do you feel about having a Madden game come out that’s featuring an athlete wearing a uniform for a team that he no longer plays for?
Chris Erb: I think the NCAA deals with it every year. Reggie Bush was on the cover of our NCAA game with a USC uniform on, and I’m watching a Saint’s game and it’s not NCAA. It’s not going to be that giant of a difference for us. I think Madden is the first professional franchise to go through it. Like I said, you’re only going to see him with a Packers uniform on when you open your pack, but as soon as you put your disc in your console, you’re going to see him in any uniform you want to see him in.

EA announced that you were putting Brett Favre on the cover when he was retired. Considering that this is the 20th anniversary of the franchise do you think that this is the ultimate Madden Curse event?
Chris Erb: [laughs] I’ll be honest with you…not yet. It could be. Here’s my thought on it. We decided to go with Brett when he was the best quarterback in the league, and the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Once we put him on the cover, he’s a backup for the same team. So that felt a little weird for a while, right? Oh, okay, that’s kind of a curse. But now that we’ve gotten past that, and now he’s the starting quarterback for the New York Jets, we’ve always had a goal to have a guy win a Super Bowl as our cover guy. That’s kind of always been our goal. There are a lot of guys that have been on our cover that have won Super Bowls. We’ve spent so much time with Brett working on the game, it would be great. We’ve become the biggest Brett fans, and we always root for our guys.

I’m from Seattle. I put Shaun Alexander on the cover – no one was a bigger Shaun Alexander fan than I was. I worked closely with Donovan McNabb on the 06 game. We wanted him to have a tremendous season. We felt the same way about Brett. I’m kind of excited that he’s on the cover, we still have the chance to watch him play, and hopefully take his team to the Superbowl. Now, in three or four months I may get different types of calls from yourself and others about, “Brett’s hurt.” [laughs] We’re potentially anticipating those, but we’re hoping it doesn’t come to fruition.

Considering that his legacy right now is tarnished. Personally as a Packer fan, I’m still angry about it. Out of all of the Madden Curses stereotypes, do you think this is the pinnacle?
Chris Erb: I don’t think it is at all. If the Jets go 12-0, no one is going to be talking about our curse. I think the whole curse story hasn’t played out yet. Yes, right now it feels like there is a current answer to it. If he gets injured I guess we’re back to this spot. I think it’s a fun conversation. We have the curse conversation every year, I’m currently having a conversation about the curse now, I don’t know.
How do you think he’s going to do for the Jets?
Chris Erb: Actually we’re in the middle of doing a sim for it right now of how the Jets will do with him, and I think we’re going to try and release that soon.

Did he get injured?
Chris Erb: [laughs] I promise you, he didn’t get injured in my sim.

–Billy Berghammer

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