EA Sports president Peter Moore claims that his studio's "laser-focus on innovation" is paying off in the form of improved review scores, with critical ratings for
FIFA 09 and
NHL 09 up over four points compared to scores for last year's games on review-aggregate site Metacritic.
The company also notes that three more of its multiplatform sports titles released in the past three months --
Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, and
NCAA Football 09 -- were rated an 81 or higher with Metacritic's averaged scores.
“Our laser-focus on innovation is paying off and we’ve gained a great deal of momentum over the past 12 months,” says Moore. “EA SPORTS has delivered the top two highest-rated sports games of the current console generation in the past month –
NHL 09 and
FIFA 09. Critics are taking notice of the innovation we’re delivering to capture our core audience and captivate the masses with more approachable gameplay.”
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello previously noted the value the company places on Metacritic's averaged reviews and the need to turn around 2007's trend of falling scores for EA titles.
“Our core game titles are accurately measured and summarized by these assessments, and that is a very big deal," he
commented earlier this year. "So this is perhaps, to me, the most important chart in this presentation, we need to recover here.”
Moore also
spoke favorably of the aggregate review site, calling Metacritic "the only real, objective indicator of quality" in September 2008. He went on to say that EA Sports is "very optimistic about finishing the year very strongly on Metacritic scores."
