EA CEO John Riccitiello Resigns - UPDATED

[Headbiter]

Ding dong, the witch is dead. I don't think this is going to lead to a massive shakeup in corporate policy. A CEO is elected by the shareholders, after all.

Except that with all their "Digital revenues" their profits are tanking. I guess they are learning real fast that short profits aren't worth long losses.

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. It's almost the wild wild west right now with gaming, they are trying to push the limits of what they can get away with, and luckily the game enthusiasts out there are such a vocal bunch that the people that make our entertainment are getting the picture.

Be fair, give us good value, and don't sell us broken shit, and we will give you the monies.

Given that all of that stuff you just mentioned is pretty much century-old business wisdom, "fast" isn't the word I'd use. Not at all.

And given the general track record of EA, all this "pessimism" really is just awareness to the cold, hard facts, something I've been waiting to awaken among gamers for YEARS. So I think we all know that the next thought from EA's side won't be

"Okay, we realized that we've been behaving like short-sighted money-grubbing bastards, alienating our customers by treating them like retarded money-bags, so we vow to change our ways",

but rather

"Okay, we apparantly didn't squeeze our programmers' and our customers' necks hard enough, since all our foolproof succesful business strategies didn't make us enough money. Obviously the game market is tougher than even we thought, so all we need to do is be even more ruthless. Because we have a lot of money, our concepts can't be wrong!"

So yes, I'm waiting for the next slimey RP-Agent telling us that EA will take on a "new, fesh direction" and usher in a new era of "compelling and innovative games". And of course the inevitable slide of drool-monkeys who actually believe that.

 

[Charli]

Replacing one vampire overlord with another. Who cares. He's sucked as much money as he feels his conscience can take. He'll be forgotten within a year and live his life. The next person will likely be a clone.

Touch wood. EA, I live to be surprised.

 

[Floppertje]

hey, maybe the next one wil realize that the current business model isn't doing them any favours. not even the biggest fool in the world will keep running into the same wall forever.

 

[FalloutJack]

Herein lieth,

Thine acts of the Electronic Arts (played by Sir Robin),

...Who nearly defeated the Dragon of Angnor...

...Who nearly faced up to the Chicken of Bristol...

...And who personally wet himself at The Battle of Baden Hill...

Against the Fearsome Three-Headed Knight (The Internet).​

Ah, but I doubt we're done just yet. This is all probably a dodge to make people THINK they take responsibility while actually doing nothing at all, NOTHING AT ALL, NOTHING AT ALL! [sub]Stupid sexy Flanders...[/sub] We should, therefore, get out all of our weapons and keep hurting them. I doubt their intelligence will rise 'cause of this, so...

Good hunting!​

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I'm not expecting much to change honestly, EA are too bloated to change easily they'll keep on as is and hope shit'll change on it's own it's easier than trying to turn the whole thing around. :/

 

[Griffolion]

So he resigns not because of the homogenous pile of DRM-ridden mediocrity released under his reign, not because consumers hate him and his company with a burning passion equal to the sun, not out of any sense of decency. He resigns because he hasn't hit the company's bottom line forecast.

Same old Riccitiello, same old EA. Chances are they'll just replace this idiot with an even bigger one. Don't get your hopes up.

 

[Strazdas]

This was seen from a mile away. the last two things he said were actually logical, and you cant run EA with logic. oh no. it was clear he was leaving. and bam, he got kicked nicely wrapped in cotton.

Now, to find out whether the new CEO will continue to make the company as evil as possible.

P.S. so wheres that theory of why evil corporations never fail when you need it.

 

[chiggerwood]

No shit, when I first read this my immediate reaction was to hop up and start dancing a merry jig. My dog just looked at me with a bemused look on her face.

 

[maninahat]

Ding dong, the witch is dead. I don't think this is going to lead to a massive shakeup in corporate policy. A CEO is elected by the shareholders, after all.

Agreed. We'll more than likely end up with more of the same. There is only so much policy and game design an actual CEO takes part in, and even if the new guy has lots of crazy ideas (like not treating its customers as children/morons/criminals) very little of that'll tickle down to the dev teams.

 

[Azwrath]

Wow. I think this is the best move the EA PR department made in the last... 3 or 4 years. And lets be serious that's all this is, a PR move, since the true puppet masters remain the same.

 

[chiggerwood]

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

He may be worse, but, for a short time, cheer friend and cheer loudly. Joy is short lived these days, embrace it now and let cynicism wait until tomorrow.

 

[MrMan999]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

 

[Rainforce]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

but will we let ourselves get fooled again?

on topic: sure wish this would change anything, but I don't believe in it.

 

[Metalrocks]

wow. amazing. still cant believe it. he is gone, taking away all the money he stole. if we will have any good changes with the new guy, maybe not. but if things do get better, maybe i can get a ?A game again.

 

[itsthesheppy]

A superbly fitting resignation. I have to think that the release of SimCity was a make-or-break for the CEO. Given the disastrous design of the game, the faulty launch, and the overall negative press, the board was probably going to fire him anyway. In fact, they probably did, and told him to just resign as a courtesy.

Bring in the next clown.

 

[Cowabungaa]

that was unexpected and good news, his policies have basically alienated gamers and come close to destroying EA

Yeeeaaaah not really. Or at least not exclusively, not even remotely even. Don't forget about the huge team around him and the stockholders he answers to.

Honestly I blame stockholders for a bigger part of the issues than these CEO's. Most of the investors care fuck-all about videogames. They just want profit. No wonder you get a CEO who makes sure that happens. Hence why I wouldn't be surprised if EA gets a CEO now that isn't all that different.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

All they have to do is stop rushing out titles. Stop with all the DrM bullshit and allow us to play single player games offline.....unless its a MMO. Its why they are failing, they are creating to much bad publicity for themselves with there practices. Take time, bring out some polished titles and gamers will buy them.

EA. You are your own worse enemy.

 

[Doug]

Well, uh... that's kind of out of the blue, I guess.

Happy trails, I suppose. Hopefully this means EA won't be as much of a dick anymore. It probably won't do anything, though. I'm not even sure what he did.

He was the boss of the company. It -might- make a huge difference ... or none at all. Really depends on how smart EA's shareholders are about who they get to replace him.

NOOOOOO!!

Now who will Jim make fun of?!

Simples - that heavy rain guy (the one who said/implied graphics == emotion) he did a whole episode about.

Him and the Gears of War guy.

EDIT:

that was unexpected and good news, his policies have basically alienated gamers and come close to destroying EA

Yeeeaaaah not really. Or at least not exclusively, not even remotely even. Don't forget about the huge team around him and the stockholders he answers to.

Honestly I blame stockholders for a bigger part of the issues than these CEO's. Most of the investors care fuck-all about videogames. They just want profit. No wonder you get a CEO who makes sure that happens. Hence why I wouldn't be surprised if EA gets a CEO now that isn't all that different.

But here's the thing - he HASN'T turned a profit - or at least, not the profits they where after. The problem is the shareholders are not being logical, and are being self-destructive; The policies of John Ricc and Co look, to shareholder flawed logic, to be sensible and reasonable - DRM to counter pirates, DLC/online passes to tackle the second hand market - but in reality they don't work and anger EA's customers to the point they stop buying.

They aren't voting for profit really, their voting for what they think is profit but is likely ruin. You can be a profitable, even greedy company, and still have great customer loyality; look at Apple, look at Valve, look at all those trainer companies who have thousands of kids buying overpriced shoes.

The problem is not greed vs not-greed, the problem is effective/smart business vs stupid business.

 

[Doug]

edit: Sorry, accidental double post

 

[Judgment90]

To be honest, I don't think Riccitiello resigning will solve all of the issues involving EA. I personally believe he was just one part of a conglomeration of people that are responsible for all the things that make gamers hate EA.

And, his resignation does not guarantee that the new CEO will be better.