EA CEO John Riccitiello Resigns - UPDATED
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Meet the new boss; hopefully slightly less worse than the old boss.
It's like killing Caesar in Fallout New Vegas. It doesn't change alter the storyline one bit, as he's just replaced by some other faceless ruler. I doubt anything major change is going to happen even with Riccitiello gone, but I won't ignore the possibility of it.
Ah well, I guess it's time to change my avatar again.
It's like killing Caesar in Fallout New Vegas. It doesn't change alter the storyline one bit, as he's just replaced by some other faceless ruler. I doubt anything major change is going to happen even with Riccitiello gone, but I won't ignore the possibility of it.
Ah well, I guess it's time to change my avatar again.
Hardly recognized him without the Jim Sterling photoshopping.
Hopefully their next guy wont sign off on every stupid idea to bleed the consumer dry.
Yea, that's the one.Andy Shandy said:You know, that picture is actually more horrifying than Jim's version (below)
There's just a subtle hint of "I'm going to kill you and no one will ever know" about that face.
Hopefully their next guy wont sign off on every stupid idea to bleed the consumer dry.
Damn I can't believe that it took till page 2 for someone to actually see what this really is, a fall guy. Sorry but John is just "taking the bullet" for EA's PR department, marketing department, and board of executives.NortherWolf said:
EA is not going to change at all by just removing the puppet figure at the front. To this day I still don't know why on both business and political side people think removing the puppet will do anything. When EA cleans house completely then I will say maybe there is hope for them.
Right now EA is trying to save face for the shareholders to explain how they are going to turn it around next quarter.
My guess is that it wasn't his plan to begin with, the decisions of his predecessor were still in effect so it was like a transition period where a lot of the old projects were finishing up and after that was when things started going bad. Dead Space 1, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect 1, The Orange Box, Bad Company 1, Spore, Burnout Paradise, all of those came out 2007 or 2008. Riccitiello became CEO in 2007, which means all of those good projects and new IPs were all greenlit and in development before Riccitiello took charge. Even Dragon Age 1 was in development well before he took charge, it was first announced in 2004.an annoyed writer said:I hope this leads to a more consumer-friendly EA. Under this guy's leadership, Electronic Arts had made some very poor decisions and to be honest, I really wish he stuck to his original plan: he was greenlighting new IPs left and right, and EA even worked with motherfucking Valve for a short period of time. Don't believe me? Look at this box:
More specifically, the lower right-hand corner. Those logos were together on every PS3 case of The Orange Box, including mine. Something happened after 2008. Something bad. I hope now that they try and fix it.
All those games were part of the old guy's plan and it was working. But once those decisions ran their course and all those projects were over (so between 2007 to late 2008-ish), Ricci slowly started making his own decisions and that seems to be when things started going downhill. First the Spore DRM debacle (no doubt a decision of his). The Dead Space 2 PR debacle. DA2 being generally agreed to be crap. The Sims 3 being much more monetized and not as much of an improvement (so I hear anyways). The games slowly went towards more generic action-ish style (DS2, ME2, DS3). Then throw in Online Passes and more emphasis on microtransactions/DLC. And then they started trying to get in on other companies' successes. Origin in 2011 to get a piece of the Steam pie. BF3 to get a piece of the CoD pie. The Old Republic MMO to get a piece of the WoW pie. And now finally we have the Sim City debacle.
I'd wager all these things can be traced back directly to Ricci's decision making, and that most of the good stuff at the beginning had little to do with him. The further and further we get from the influence of his predecessor's decisions, and the more Ricci has a say in things, the worse things seem to get.
The other bad thing that happened in 2008 was the financial crisis, it probably didn't help things much either (though that doesn't excuse anything of course).
I think there's at least some hope for EA though, at least for a little while. Larry Probst was the CEO before Ricci and he's going to be Ricci's temporary successor, so I expect in the short term at least, things might look up a little for EA. Personally I hope he stays CEO since it was under his leadership we got all those new IPs...
"and after six years I feel it is the right time for me pass the baton and let new leadership take the Company into its next phase of innovation and growth"
I love that I just read this sentence immediately after watching Jim's video about "innovation". Either way, me and EA strongly disagree about how one innovates in the game industry.
I love that I just read this sentence immediately after watching Jim's video about "innovation". Either way, me and EA strongly disagree about how one innovates in the game industry.
If we can get enough new stock, or old stock, for Probst, then we might be able to get a variety of games to come out of the EA stable, instead of generic action game in X setting.
Well, all the corporate bullshit speak aside, this might spell better times for EA. The first step in mending these kinds of relationships is usually to fire someone that takes the blame for it.
Maybe things'll get better, maybe not. We shall see.
But seriously... while they're at it, they really should give their entire PR department the boot as well. Those guys are a blight on this planet.
Maybe things'll get better, maybe not. We shall see.
But seriously... while they're at it, they really should give their entire PR department the boot as well. Those guys are a blight on this planet.
While I am happy at this news I fear EA might respond the way the GOP did after the 2012 presidential elections. Rather than realize that allowing nuts like Robert Murdoch ("even if life begins in that horrible situation of rape") and Atkins ("if it's legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting it down") to run rampant might be bad for the image of GOP, they decide they need to be even more conservative!
What I am getting at is the possibillity that the next guy to take over EA might be even worse.
What I am getting at is the possibillity that the next guy to take over EA might be even worse.
just look at his picture, his business speak... he's not a gamer and couldn't care less about gamers. to him, we are numbers on a spreadsheet. which is precisely why that spreadsheet's bottom line is getting smaller and smaller everytime they look at it. of course, that's just the impression that i get.
i don't see this as good news for the simple fact that i don't see it leading to any real changes. i'd love to be wrong, i'd like to see them focus on the gamers instead of the investors. because at the end of the day, it's the gamers that are going to keep you in business.
EA, you're a huge company with lots of money to throw around. i can almost promise you that if you gave up some of your profits and instead spent that money on buying goodwill with gamers, it will pay off in the end. you've earned a lot of bad karma with gamers EA, so it's gonna take a BIG gesture to show you've changed. here are some of my ideas...
1. Whatever the next generation's standard game price is, make your games 5 or 10 dollars less. it will give more gamers a reason to pick your title over every other title out there, and will show that your dedication lies with making the gamers happy, not your investors. i promise that the money you lose on each sale will be more than made up for by increased sales.
2. don't make your digital games the same price as your physical ones. i shouldnt even have to explain this one. it's ridiculous and illogical. stop that.
3. if you insist on having microtransactions, make them things that are also available by in-game means. look at valve's tf2 to see that this ACTUALLY WORKS. for both sides.
4. never again pull this drm shit. countless studies have shown that drm does very little towards combating piracy and only alienates your paying customers. always on, or any other type of drm just doesnt work. stop that.
5. feel free to violate any of these pointers when dealing with the EA Sports crowd. those idiots have been buying the same games over and over again for 20 years, and they deserve to be punished.
i don't see this as good news for the simple fact that i don't see it leading to any real changes. i'd love to be wrong, i'd like to see them focus on the gamers instead of the investors. because at the end of the day, it's the gamers that are going to keep you in business.
EA, you're a huge company with lots of money to throw around. i can almost promise you that if you gave up some of your profits and instead spent that money on buying goodwill with gamers, it will pay off in the end. you've earned a lot of bad karma with gamers EA, so it's gonna take a BIG gesture to show you've changed. here are some of my ideas...
1. Whatever the next generation's standard game price is, make your games 5 or 10 dollars less. it will give more gamers a reason to pick your title over every other title out there, and will show that your dedication lies with making the gamers happy, not your investors. i promise that the money you lose on each sale will be more than made up for by increased sales.
2. don't make your digital games the same price as your physical ones. i shouldnt even have to explain this one. it's ridiculous and illogical. stop that.
3. if you insist on having microtransactions, make them things that are also available by in-game means. look at valve's tf2 to see that this ACTUALLY WORKS. for both sides.
4. never again pull this drm shit. countless studies have shown that drm does very little towards combating piracy and only alienates your paying customers. always on, or any other type of drm just doesnt work. stop that.
5. feel free to violate any of these pointers when dealing with the EA Sports crowd. those idiots have been buying the same games over and over again for 20 years, and they deserve to be punished.