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Friday, December 12, 2014

Madden Curse Movie: CANCELED!?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - 2014 is ending very soon... and we got an answer!

Remember KoopaTV at the very beginning of January 2014? That seems so long ago now, but together we have now reached the end of 2014. Well, back then, I made a resolution:
"get to the bottom of the Madden Curse scandal."
We sent out an e-mail to Angela Souvanarra, the new Electronic Arts PR woman over half a year ago. Apparently, unlike Elizabeth Brett, she still works there!

Let's send another! This time, via direct e-mail, not the EA Press Contact Form. How do I know what EA's e-mail addresses look like? One day, I got an automatic reply from these people showing the format. First initial and then last name. (Click that to see the first "Madden Curse" movie article that started this all.) With this, I can e-mail anyone in the company. As I did with Pat O'Brien, head of EA Entertainment, on October 26, 2014.

Disclosure: I tried e-mailing Angela again with ASouvanarra@ea.com, but it failed. So maybe EA changed their e-mail system, or... she's dead and EA deleted her.
To: POBrien@ea.com
Subject: Madden Curse Movie Information Request
Hi Pat,
I just wanted to follow up on our earlier conversation about the "Madden Curse" movie that EA is working on since 2010.
How is the movie going along? Is it cancelled or well in progress?
Thanks,
Ludwig
Of course, that earlier conversation was entirely one-sided and he never read it (because it happened over Facebook and it went straight to his no-notification "Other" folder — as an aside, if he ever replied to it now I wouldn't know), but hey, doesn't mean he knows that. If I act all familiar (first-name basis) with him, then maybe he's more willing to reply. Heck, no mention of KoopaTV this time or that EA is a shitty company within the e-mail contents. Just a straight-up "What the hell happened?" Except polite. No nonsense. Straight to the point.

That's how business e-mails are supposed to be written.

...And it worked. He replied almost immediately.

Vice President of EA Entertainment Patrick O'Brien confirms the Madden Curse movie is not being worked on.
Am I more surprised that I got a reply, or by what the reply contains?

Let's focus on what the reply contains for now. I responded:
Just to confirm, the Madden Curse movie got canceled since it was announced in December 2010? Or was it never started and it was just a joke widely reported as fact throughout the sports and gaming press?

The other media sources cited you as one of the producers back in 2010, but EA has not talked about it since then, so I wanted to follow up.
(You spoke to me before in mid-2013.)
Thank you for replying.
Well. He replied. He just didn't answer.

Pat O'Brien of Electronic Arts does not respond to journalists
Answer my question with a question? Lame.

How to reply to that took a great deal of thought. We ended up telling the truth on October 29.

Yes.
I am the main writer for KoopaTV, a premier videogame industry commentary website. The Madden Curse movie has been of particular interest to us since we last talked in 2013, because no update has been given to it since you were announced as the producer in 2010.
So once again I would like to ask (for publishing purposes), was the Madden Curse movie canceled since announced, or was it never started to begin with?

Thank you.
Was telling the truth the right thing to do? After all, keeping no cards up our sleeve does make us completely at his mercy. Being a journalist could mean that we could end up being redirected to a minion, or being told off completely and that he does not respond to unsolicited journalism requests. Knowing EA, we'd probably have to pay them or something. If I didn't say I was from KoopaTV, he could have easily figured it out with a simple Google search. Doesn't help that I'm not Ludwig@IGN.com or something.

If I said I wasn't a journalist, what noun could I use that would get my answer? We couldn't figure that out. And so we became at the mercy of Pat O'Brien. As disciples of Ace Attorney, our number one fear: The truth would be lost to us forever.

...Well, looks like that fear came true. On November 3, I sent this:
"...Are you ignoring my question because I answered "Yes."?"
Well, he's not gonna answer that. And now that it's December 12, we can confirm that Pat O'Brien indeed never replied. In typical EA fashion, he runs away at the first sight of people out to obtain the truth. Because Electronic Arts is nothing but a company of diabolical lying scumbags, as we have wrote about many times on KoopaTV. Almost every time they have been mentioned on the site, actually, so feel free to use that search bar.

We know for a fact that the "Madden Curse" movie is not being worked on. What we don't know:
  1. Will it ever be worked on in the future?
  2. Was the announcement itself a hoax?
  3. Was it ever worked on but canceled?
  4. Did work ever start?
And, of course, we do not know why Elizabeth Brett had to die for a movie that does not even EXIST. Anyway, as long as Question #1 is not answered, I suppose we can still hope for a "Madden Curse" movie trailer at the next EA E3. After all, the thought of that was the only thing we clung to while we had to watch (and react to) EA's miserable performances at E3 2013 and E3 2014. Since it's not confirmed that they would never work on it... Maybe Pat O'Brien meant, "Hey, we're not working on that now, but that's a temporary thing!"

I think it is clear that Pat O'Brien did not mean to tell KoopaTV about the status, but he did it accidentally because he was surprised by our approach. After he sent out reply, he then realized the grave error of his ways and became very defensive. This means that his first reply was his genuine reply, and the second one was the company-wide EA protocol: the defensive, secretive jerk reply. I asked how the movie was going along, and asked if it was cancelled or well in progress. He did not say it was cancelled, but he did address the well in progress. He could have answered by saying it was cancelled, but he did not. What that means is that it might be worked on in the future, or the announcement was a hoax. After all, you cannot cancel something that does not exist! He also said "a" Madden Curse movie, while my e-mail called it "the" Madden Curse movie. His word choice suggests that he does not know about any specific Madden Curse movie, meaning that I am possibly referencing something he is unaware of. Since he was the one who supposedly announced the movie to begin with, he should be VERY aware of it! This gives more support to the announcement itself being a widespread hoax.

Was this good enough to satisfy "get to the bottom of the Madden Curse scandal"? Let me know in the comments, and maybe what we should do next.


Ludwig is not normally an investigative journalist, and is a lot more comfortable being a colourful commentator. Still, one of the themes of KoopaTV is "the truth", and if KoopaTV must investigate to know the truth, then investigate KoopaTV shall do!

2 comments :

  1. "Was telling the truth the right thing to do?"

    "...a PREMIER video game industry commentary website."

    Dat elastic truth you conceived.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...Hey, everything ever calls themselves "premier" nowadays.
      Something I've noticed.

      Delete

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