Phil Harrison talks Home, 30fps Madden

by Nick Doerr { Aug 1st 2007 at 7:00PM }

Phil Harrison can't seem to get through an interview without receiving the first degree on Home and LittleBigPlanet. We bet when he sleeps at night, he might just be plagued with dreams about answering questions on those two titles. Not that it's a bad thing, but we're sure it's taking its toll on him. Anyway, in a recent 1UP interview, Phil answered some of the questions we've been wondering about for a while.

About Madden on PS3 running at 30fps: "It would concern me if the platform was incapable of doing it, but we've proven the platform is capable of doing it, so it's not a PlayStation 3 issue. I'm trying to be polite." He talks about the Edge dev kit and how Sony's own titles are running at full 1080p with 60fps, basically dodging the more obvious answer: EA Sports are lazy.
When asked if Home were going to be shipped with completed features and basically everything that Home could possibly have upon launch, Harrison replied: "There will be features that get added over time, it's not going to be everything that we've ever talked about at the beginning of the service. I'm being very clear we never intended for that to be the case, either, but we have a clear road map of where and how and when we're going to be adding functions and features."

As far as Home itself, it's progressing well and is still due out this Fall. Development kits were sent out on July 10th to developers to start prepping titles to be Home-ready and the beta is going well. We can't wait to get our trophies for playing games in Home, or our fun little T-shirts letting people know that we really, really dig Virtua Fighter 5. Or whatever else we dig at that point.
[via N4G]

Tags: home, madden, philharrison

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Andy @ Aug 1st 2007 7:09PM

I almost forgot about Home...I can't wait.

I really think Maddens big problem is that it is on too many consoles...many of which are obsolete like the GameBoy Advance and the Original Xbox. With so many consoles they simply don't have enough time to make it good on all consoles year after year.

nevelo07 @ Aug 1st 2007 7:12PM

who knows ms probely paid ea to do the shit

nevelo07 @ Aug 1st 2007 7:14PM

ps3 can do better animation than 360 so that would make player models and better collision between players

Nick @ Aug 1st 2007 7:20PM

The problem with Madden is that they are greedy. They have sole rights to the NFL, they have strip mined the game, raised the price $10 and then sell back to us the content they took out. It's a massive shame. The game sucks now.

rockylovesgirls123 @ Aug 1st 2007 7:30PM

When is that open beta supposed to be out? First it was July...but July is over? ...oh yeah and EA are just lazy people.

Mr Khan @ Aug 1st 2007 7:36PM

the 30fps thing is probably due to architectural differences. PS3's certainly isn't inferior, just different, PS3's architecture is CPU dominated, much like the PS1's, and trying to shoehorn in a code that relies more on a CPU/GPU balance (like the 360, or worse the Wii's complete CPU/GPU independence, not that it matters in this case) probably offsets it a bit

Ian @ Aug 1st 2007 7:38PM

Ooooooof! Mr Harrison really kicks EA in the nuts! Roughly translated Mr Harrison states that "We've provided all devs with all the kit and support they need to get PS3 games up to 60fps but EA are simply too concerned about churning out games to meet both deadlines and bottom line costs to bother about quality.".
This is only one step down from spraying the EA HQ in slurry and posting videos of it on youtube!

Jason @ Aug 1st 2007 7:43PM

Tell it like it is Phil. EA did not spend enough time making the PS3 version of Madden 08 the best it could be. It is completely EA's fault. Watch and see, next year's PS3 Madden will be 60fps without a hitch. Thanks to probably some kind of Microsoft payoff, 360 owners have a better football game for a whole year.

At least we get the superior Pro Evo Soccer 2008! Konami knows to treat the local boys right.

Consolcwby @ Aug 1st 2007 8:02PM

Basically what Phil is trying to say is that Sony gave EA the updated tools - probably last spring like they were doing with everyone else - and EA has chosen NOT to implement them so that they could release the game on time and (probably) on budget. You can tell it is frustrating to him, especially since the OTHER football games RUN at 60fps... I don't blame him! All the devs complained about hard to use and incomplete dev kits, and as soon as Sony provides them with superior updates, THE DEVS DONT USE THEM! And EA keeps proving they don't deserve exlusive licenses again and again... =S

(And now that Mr. Moore is with them, it can only get worse!) =(

justin @ Aug 1st 2007 8:07PM

I don't mind so much that madden is running at 30 FPS, the problem is that it's BETTER for 360!
That's BS.

John @ Aug 1st 2007 8:56PM

This is funny, I bet you're absolutely right that Phil dreams about his responses to these things-- that's his job, and right now, his job is crucial-- his dreams will likely be more pleasant after Holiday '07.

It was good that he politely responded to the 30fps drama with the correct information: it's not that the ps3 can't do it-- so where does that leave us? Where we've always been, with EA, one of those companies that just doesn't care about frame rate (we're looking at you, Carbon).

mccomber @ Aug 1st 2007 9:01PM

Gotta say; I like Phil. He really does a great job overall, and says far fewer cringe-worthy things than his buddies at Sony seem to.

Michael K. @ Aug 1st 2007 9:14PM

im sick of hearing about this dumb home thing, i cant wait to never use it

MYPS3KilledMy360 @ Aug 1st 2007 9:46PM

EA wow this just shows you how much microsoft is influencing the playing field! it was all a part of moores plan! team ninja the makers of ninja gaiden now thats hard working team that cares! NFL 2k i want you back madden just stole all what you had and added it to there crappy game.

AJ @ Aug 1st 2007 10:39PM

LOL @ the trolling 360 fanboy Gearsmaster aka johnnyboy

ToyAnvil @ Aug 1st 2007 11:16PM

"Sony's own titles are running at full 1080p with 60fps" - Not Heavenly Sword - 720p sucks for us with 1080i only Sets

Irwin @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:08AM

anddddd im guessing most of the people posting here believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories??

ArtVandelay @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:35AM

I thought EA came out and said the PS3 Madden would actually be 60fps?

Honestly the only EA game I buy is Madden. I don't mind them making money but it has become obvious EA no longer cares about making a quality product to get it. The next gen Madden the last two years has been complete crap. I bought both and returned both for the PS2 version because they sucked so bad, they had fewer features than the PS2 version for more money.

EA really needs a wake-up call, they don't care anymore and don't care if anyone knows it.

never$$hort @ Aug 2nd 2007 5:10PM

Good thing I HATE Madden cuz that would piss me off... You better get your act together EA otherwise I'm done with you. Moore better not make matters worse, chump..