EA's Peter Moore on eSports plans, matchmaking and passion

Electronic Arts' Chief Competitive Officer Peter Moore talked at Gamelab in Barcelona about the future of esports and the games industry as well EA's plans with games and even a recap of what the company showed back at E3 with EA Play. He then answered questions from the audience. Here's the full "Making Every Player a Star" Gamelab panel:

After the panel we had an interesting, comprehensive chat with the CCO on all things esports, starting by the obvious question: how do you make every player a star?

"I was going to say it's simple but it isn't. It starts at the bottom," Moore explains. "It starts about giving every player who wants to play, no matter the skill level, a fun environment, a safe environment. Matchmaking is very important so that you don't get demotivated very quickly and don't come back. And providing venues, whether they're online or in the dormitory of your college or your school and providing you the opportunities to play at whatever level you feel comfortable. And then ultimately, as we think about competitive gaming there's big glamorous glitzy arena events that we all see and watch on Twitch, and those are aspiration: you're saying in your dreams 'I want to be there, I want to play for one of the top teams, I want to play League of Legends or Dota 2 or CS:GO or hopefully FIFA or Madden or Battlefield'. No different to real sports."

Moore describes EA's plans and infrastructure, underlining "you have to make sure the games have integrity: anti-cheating mechanisms", and defining matchmaking in terms of main service to be provided:

"You have to make sure that the games are fun and people stay with them: matchmaking. If you're so much better than me at FIFA, you're going to beat me every time, I'm going to stop playing. But if I can beat you... I don't mind getting beaten; I just don't want to get beaten every time. At the same time, players are going to tell you: winning all the time is boring."

The interview touches upon other sport-like aspects such as mainstream passion, demographics, generations of players as well. There's some nice memories when Moore played in England at a "decent level", the right full-back dreaming of playing for Liverpool in the future. "There might have been ten men and a dog watching us play, but we were well matched", remembers Moore. "Was it full-time professional football? No. Was it important to me and did I feel like I was a star? You bet I did. And that's what we have to do for eSports"

Play the full interview for more on the topic and more specific plans for FIFA 17 or Battlefield 1: