EA CEO John Riccitiello Resigns - UPDATED

[Atmos Duality]

A cathartic victory, and nothing more. EA won't change their model; they've proven far too pigheaded to even bother trying.

"John has worked hard to lead the company through challenging transitions in our industry, and was instrumental in driving our very significant growth in digital revenues. We appreciate John's leadership and the many important strategic initiatives he has driven for the company. We have mutually agreed that this is the right time for a leadership transition."

"We thank him for showing us how to better twist the consumer's arm with our thinly veiled price-gouging! It's incredible that we didn't think of this sooner!"

"EA is an outstanding company with creative and talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the Company's CEO. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, 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," the soon-to-be-former CEO added. "I remain very optimistic about EA's future - there is a world class team driving the Company's transition to the next generation of game consoles."

Oh yes, you gave us so much "innovation and growth". Like pulverizing all of your biggest non-sports franchises into bland paste, laying off thousands, and forcing consumer-hating get-rich-quick schemes into your recent titles.

The best thing I can say about your tenure is that at least you didn't abuse your employees to the point where you got sued again (twice), and that you at least let your company take a chance on Mirror's Edge.

I can only guess what horrible business plans you have for the next generation, and hope that the more-anti-consumer centric schemes don't succeed and spread to the rest of gaming.

 

[1337mokro]

Poor Jim. He has to draw a smiley on Two new guys now. The temp CEO and the new CEO.

 

[O maestre]

this means nothing, i dont think it will make a difference at all

president of EA 1991-97 Larry Probst
president of EA 1997-04 John Riccitiello
president of EA 2004-07 Larry Probst
president of EA 2007-13 John Riccitiello
president of EA 2013-?? Larry Probst

notice a pattern, even in regards to leadership EA is afraid of innovation.

 

[Uratoh]

I believe two of our titles ? Battlefield and FIFA ? will be among the top few franchises in the entire industry.

FIFA...the same FIFA that actually managed to tick off its fans by literally reskinning '12 and calling it '13?

 

[Jamous]

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.

Moving on...

Can't say him leaving is a huge loss for me. While I know that just changing the man at the top will probably not do much to change EA, Riccitiello has presided over some of EA's shittier behaviour and whoever comes in after Probst (assuming he doesn't stay on) may be able to hopefully change them for the better, however slightly.

Well, we all can dream, can't we?

We can dream indeed. I was quite surprised that it wasn't Jim's picture actually. I've gotten so used to seeing that one that it's really quite unnerving to see the original photo. Disturbing, even. On the other hand I'm almost relieved to see him go. And then I remember that just getting rid of the one man is unlikely to actually change EA's current way of doing things.

 

[faefrost]

One down gentleman (and ladies). We get Kotick and they'll all fall.

The weird thing is Kotick while incredibly annoying and clueless, somehow lacks the pure evit that has signified his EA counterpart. Kotick is a clown with a severely bad case of verbal diahrea. But I rarely find myself thinking that I am not getting reasonable value for my money from the vast majority of games that his company produces. even the ones that aren't the best ever have been at leasta reasonable degree of fun. Yeah Diablo 3 wasn't D2, but the worst that could be said was it was a meh game bundled to a failed always online experiment. So long as Kotick restricts his insanity and antics to infront of interviewers and speakers podiums, and stays mostly out of the way of game makers I can tolerate him.

Riccietello however took a well respected and highly profitable company, that used to make some of the worlds best games, and he destroyed virtually everything about it. Profits are way down. Game quality is way down. Creative people were savaged and let go in favor of corporate marketing drones. Customer service became literally criminal. He managed to take the worlds largest game maker. A company in theory dedicated to fun. And have it declarred the single worst business in the world. Surpassing things like AT&T and Bank of America at the height of the mortgage crisis. NOW THAT'S SOME STOCKHOLDER VALUE THERE! Somehow he never seemed to understand the difference between price and profit in the game world, and we all suffered for it. He has almost single handedly brought us to another video game great crash, not unlike the fall of Atari and early consoles in the 80's. I hope his next job is assistant manager at a Des Moines Taco Bell.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Hopefully the replacement will be someone who understands the gaming market and what the people want. If not, it's officially the beginning of the end for EA.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

There's only so far down a company can be dragged before something has to give and sadly, under his leadership EA have hit rock bottom. Highlights of his stewardship:

- Buying BioWare, the most beloved RPG developer of the last decade and destroying their reputation within the first two games they published after buyout. BioWare co-founders resigned.
- Shutting down Pandemic
- Removing Crysis 2 and DA2 from Steam
- Cutting all ties with Steam and 10s of millions of potential customers
- Forcing Origin on everyone
- Introducing microtransactions into AAA games
- Coining the phrase "mass-market appeal" and watering down every single game they publish to a bland, generic shooter
- SimCity ('nuff said)
- Forcing multiplayer on EVERYTHING
- Killing Dead Space
- Killing Medal of Honor (though in fairness MoH should probably have been put down humanely years ago)
- Company fell out of NASDAQ-100
- The prevalance of online passes, SecuROM and Day 1 DLC can be attributed to them
- The numerous and impossible to account for antics that saw them banning forum users from their paid for games, threatening bans over promised refunds, removing phone numbers, pulling products and sheer greed.

Almost all shitty developments in the games industry for the last years has been theirs. Not all though...ActiBastards gave us Diablo III with real money auctions and always-online DRM that didn't work for a single player game. They're further planning to continue with microtransactions in CoD. Capcom I believe got the medal for on-disc DLC controversy. UbiSoft for forcing uPlay on everyone when we didn't want or need it. There's more, but don't have the energy.

So anyway, Ricitello won't be missed. If EA want to dominate the games industry, they should hire Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk for new co-CEOs and leave them the f**k alone. 3 years people will be singing EAs praises.

Or get Gabe. Either way.

 

[Wraithsight]

Ima just gonna leave that there. Says my feelings quite succently.

 

[LetalisK]

I'm gonna be honest, I figured he'd be the last person to hold himself accountable.

I would say "Good on him for that", but he waited so long to do it that it seems more like faint praise.

 

[ron1n]

Pretty amazing legacy he's leaving...

Published 3 big budget MMO failures: (WAR,SWTOR,Secret World).

Saw EA drop from off the NASDAQ 100.

Killed the Medal of Honour franchise (which had been around for 14 years) in the space of 2 years.

The creation of Origin.

Killed Pandemic Studios and all but killed Mythic Entertainment.

Oversaw the cutting of thousands of jobs and posted losses in the hundreds of millions.

Saw EA named the most hated company in America, beating out AT&T for a golden poo trophy.



But hey...There was always Simpson's Tapped out right?

 

[piinyouri]

Respect to the man for taking accountability.

 

[faefrost]

Respect to the man for taking accountability.

If you don't believe that the board came to him and said "Time to go" than I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. He hasn't taken accountability for anything in years. he didn't now. It's just less embarrassing for all involved than to say "We fired his ass".

 

[KeyMaster45]

Lets not go cheering to soon. I expect the next guy to be much worse then him

I know right? The gem of wisdom "When one evil falls there will always be a greater one to take its place" sure comes to mind with this news. Still I can't place all the blame on him as there were no doubt countless others under him that agreed, and still agree, with his policy decisions. Of course the real puppet masters are the board of directors who no doubt have zero understanding of the gaming industry and are impossible to dethrone shy of buying out all their stock.

 

[Colt47]

Wait, does this mean that EA might improve after all of his final planning decisions take their course?

 

[Living Contradiction]

I have to hand it to the man, he could lie like nobody else. Jim Sterling will probably give him a memorial next Monday and that will be a treat to watch.

I'm quite interested as to who's going to sit in the CEO's chair when Probst steps back to join the board again.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Rejoice, for nothing of any significance has happened today!

Yeah, business as usual for EA. It hasn't crashed or burned nearly enough to realize that, gosh darn, microtunzuctions ain't so nifty after all! Well, shucks...

Ahem.

I'll rejoice once DLC stops being profitable, which doesn't seem like it'll ever happen.

 

[Frozengale]

Good on him for at least saying that all the bad things that have happened have been his fault.