play-hard posts

The Boston based PC sports game developer Play Hard has raised a lot of money in anticipation of its first major PC game release but today the company decided to call an audible and change its name to Quick Hit. The name change comes the same day it decided to revamp its web site, which gives more info about its upcoming browser based title, which is now titled Quick Hit Football 2009.

The site also offers up the first screenshots from the game which shows that it has a somewhat retro feel in terms of its top down perspective. The game will enter an open beta in the next few months and officially launch near the start of the NFL season this fall. The free-to-play game will allow registered players to take the role of a coach/general manager of a fictional pro football team with a number of different gameplay modes, RPG-like upgrade features and more. Quick Hit also announced that former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher has been signed to be the "voice" of the game, assisting players in their coaching decisions.

Football PC game fans (and when we say "football" we mean the American game, not soccer) got burned last year when EA Sports declined to release a version of Madden NFL 09 for the platform. We've been reporting since then on a new Boston-based game developer, Play Hard Sports, which was founded by a former CEO of Turbine and has hired former EA Sports and 2K Sports team members to work on their projects.

Today Play Hard announced that they have raised $8 million in additional venture capital funds to help develop their first large scale game, Play Hard Football. The company has now raised a total of $13 million since its announcement last April. The browser based game, where players take on the role of a coach/general manger of a football team and play against other people onlinem is currently taking sign-ups for people to beta test the game at its web site. The final game is expected to launch around the same time as the start of the 2009 NFL season (September).

A few months ago, we reported on a new online PC sports developer/publisher called Play Hard. The Boston based company was founded by former Turbine CEO Jeff Anderson with plans to fill in some of the gaps in the PC sports game genre that were left when EA Sports decided to cut back on their PC products.

Today, Play Hard announced that they have hired a number of new team members, including two former EA Sports members. Brandon Justice will be the company's new director of game design. He previously worked as lead producer for EA's Madden 2006 and 2007 titles and also worked on a number of 2K Sports titles. Also Stephen Rozner, who worked on a number of EA Sports games as lead software engineer, has joined Play Hard as their director of game technology. Play Hard has yet to announced specifics on their PC game plans.

[Via email press release]

Remember a few weeks ago when EA Sports head Peter Moore decided to make PC sports game fans upset by announcing there would be no PC version of Madden NFL 09 this year? Well, PC sports gamers just got a new option to look forward to. Today it was announced that a new Boston based game developer-publisher called Play Hard has launched. The company, who has former Turbine CEO Jeff Anderson as its co-founder and CEO, is planning to launch a series of PC casual sports games via the Internet.

The press release mentions Electronic Arts' decision to abandon their PC port of Madden this year and sort of rubs that decision in EA's face, stating that Play Hard plans to fill the gap in that hole in the marketplace. The company has already scored a $5 million venture capital deal with New Enterprise Associates. In an article with the Boston Globe newspaper, Anderson stated that they plan to release their first game, a football title, sometime this fall (more sports genres will be added later) on their ad-supported web site (people will be able to see an add-free site via some kind of subscription fee). Players will be able to "level up" their football team and players the more they play in a nod to Anderson's previous experience as a developer of fantasy MMO games.

But will this new venture be successful? DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole is quoted in the article as having doubts about Play Hard, citing the already crowded casual game market as a barrier to Play Hard's success. Anderson has no such doubt, stating that after working on fantasy MMOs he was ready for something new. It should be interesting to see if a small start-up can succeed where EA apparently cannot.