Good Grief
Sometimes it's just hard to understand the gaming industry.Take a look at this story from 1UP:
We've confirmed that David Ortiz (no, not the Red Sox slugger), the lead producer on the Madden series for the PS3/360 platforms, has left development house EA Tiburon (which makes all of the company's pigskin titles). Our inside sources tell us that Ortiz cited family reasons for his leaving, but we've also heard rumblings that he grew frustrated with the inner workings of the studio. An EA spokesperson sent us this statement concerning the departure: "David's been a valuable part of our team at EA Tiburon, and we wish him the best. Dale Jackson, an EA veteran for more than a decade, continues to lead the Madden NFL development team."
We've also learned that longtime EA Tiburon producer Phil Frazier will take over Ortiz's role and head up development on the prettier versions of Madden. Frazier was a major player in making the series successful during the PS2/XB/GC days, and more recently was involved in NFL Tour's development.
Phil Frazier was the "senior producer" for NFL Tour, which has an average review score of 48 over at Metacritic. Of 24 reviews, no one gave it higher than a 75 score.
Here are a few gems from the reviews (Metacritic page here):
"Not only has NFL Tour dropped the ball, it's completely taken the air out of the old NFL Street series entirely."
--IGN (review score 4.7)
"There have been worse football games out there, but not a lot."
--Gamespy (40)
"This is one of the worst football games I've ever played."
--Gamer Node (40)
"There's bad, and there's really bad. Somehow, someway, EA has managed to eclipse both with NFL Tour."
--Daily Game (35)
"Budget buyers, beware: This half-assed rebranding and rethinking of the NFL Street series is one of the limpest sports experiences I've played in years. NFL Tour is shockingly inorganic, severely underdeveloped, and thoroughly limited."
--1UP (30)
"NFL Tour isn’t just bad. It’s other-worldy bad."
--GameShark (0)
So is a senior producer in any way reponsible for the quality of the finished product? Apparently not, because NFL Tour was probably the worst-reviewed football game of the last five years.
At EA, though, no quality? No problem.
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