Beauty has, and always will be, in the eyes of the beholder. Same scenario, I would posit, exists in the world of games. In the crowded marketplace that is  game software in year three of the next-gen hardware cycle, “quality” becomes critical in the eyes of you the gamer, as well as the retail buyers and the games journalists around the world. We all generally point to independent aggregation sites like Metacritic or GameRankings to consolidate reviews and generate review scores by upon which, theoretically, we should all base our buying decisions.  The ratings we have received for our titles from the gaming review sites over the last few months have been, for the very best part, outstanding, and I couldn’t be prouder of all of the talented individuals that work on our games.

Three months ago to the day , I guaranteed you’d see an unprecedented level of quality and innovation from our products this year.  As we looked ahead to the busy season for EA SPORTS launches ahead, we talked about capturing our core with rich new innovations – many of which tap directly into the massive migration to online – while also bringing a level of approachability to our games.  And we talked about doing all of it at a quality bar that would elevate the EA SPORTS experience to places we hadn’t been in many years.

With several of our biggest games now on store shelves and several more big launches ahead over the next two months, it’s time to say a quick thanks to our develop teams for delivering on my promise (you didn’t really want to see any new tattoos, did you?), as well as to our fans for their consistent dialogue and feedback on how we’re doing.    

We’re not perfect, and we continue to address a handful of issues that have been raised over the past three months.  But overall, we couldn’t be happier on a week when NHL 09 launches to the best scores we’ve seen in the current generation of consoles, Tiger and Madden are the most critically acclaimed Wii games on the market (all genres!), and Madden owns the top three spots on NPD and four of the top 10.  I was quoted as calling it “vindication” earlier in the week when we announced our strong first three weeks of Madden sales, and I think that’s exactly right.

Let me repeat – our games are not perfect. None are. But we strive to deliver the very best sports game experience to you year in, year out. And this year, perhaps more than ever, the teams have done a *** fine job in delivering on that goal.

PS – Look for NBA Live 09 and FIFA 09 to continue these increases in quality when we launch them in a few weeks time…