Peter Moore

Personally, I have to admit that I love Peter Moore. He’s passionate and when he goes after something he gets results. Today he talks about how EA Sports has solved “how to appeal to the female market”.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Peter Moore said, “It was a challenge. How do we go after this audience? How do we talk to women? We had no idea. We were used to appealing to their boyfriends or their brothers. It was scary. We felt we had nothing that would appeal to a female gamer. But now some figures say up to 40 per cent of all gamers are female, so we had to address it using our game engines, the great EA Sports brand – and by re-thinking the way we want to market.”

He said: “When I was at Reebok years ago, we took some plastic and made it into a step. We bundled it with a great video and told people it would enhance their workout at home, which it did. We had a $150 million business within a year.

“We had to go after a similar niche with EA Sports Active, appealing to women – who probably spent their days at home looking after the kids, and who didn’t have the time or money for the gym. We spotted this rise in health, wellness and fitness gaming early. We reached 1.8 million sales in its first month – and we’re changing people’s lives as well.

He added: “We’re finally talking to girls. We finally have women as part of the EA Sports community. It’s not a franchise, but a full platform for us going forward. It complements the Wii Balance Board.

“As Americans would say, it kicks your ass. You know about it after spending 25 minutes on this.”

Ah yes, the mysterious female gamer riddle is now solved with EA Sports Active. EA Sports Active is a great workout “game” that really has universal appeal. EA did a great job of marketing outside the normal channels to appeal to women. But to say that you conquered the female market for EA Sports, I think you have to get them to play more than just one title. But I do have to say great effort and I still love Peter Moore.