To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by the reaction to SSX coming out of E3. In the early days of this project, there was a lot of debate internally at EA about how many SSX fans still existed and how much interest remained in the market for games like SSX, and even some of the games we have taken further inspiration from such as Burnout and old-school Tony Hawk. The huge reaction to our launch trailer at the VGA‘s was the first indication that the SSX fan base was still very much alive and as passionate as ever, but actually meeting some of these people and seeing their reaction to what we are building first-hand was truly inspirational. Of course, with that passion comes a lot of strong opinions on what else we should be adding to the game or bringing back from the old games. We know we can’t possibly please everyone, but our fans should know that we are listening to everything they say and that the team is killing themselves to try and make the very best game possible.

Here I spoke with Jeff Rubenstein of the PlayStation.Blog about how we use NASA satellite maps to create new runs, including the PS3-exclusive Mount Fuji level.