EA CEO: We Failed Well

[Logan Westbrook]

EA CEO: We Failed Well

Faced with an unwinnable situation, EA says it learned from its failure and changed the game it was playing.

EA boss John Riccitiello thinks failure is an inevitable part of success, and that it's possible to turn failures into victories, as long as you "fail well." Riccitello says that EA realized it was failing four years ago, but was able to starting turning things around by embracing this fact.

Speaking to UC Berkeley's graduating class, Riccitiello said that in 2007 and 2008 EA was in a rather precarious position: development costs were up, game quality was down, and the rise of digital platforms like social networks and smart phones was changing the videogame market forever. Ricitiello said that EA's options were either to "invest and re-tool for radical change," or to continue on its then-current path, and eventually die out altogether.

The company decided to do the former, which led to significant job cuts and studio closures. Riccitiello said that it was a difficult time both for the company and for him personally. "I lost a few friends in the process," he said. "Smart, creative people who just couldn't stomach the transition. Some stopped believing, some left for what they thought were better offers with a quicker profit and payout."

He felt that it had been the right thing to do, however, and EA was strengthened by embracing its past failings. "We were students of our own failure, we used our failure to shape and impel us to a better strategy, one that we believe will ultimately succeed in ways that our previous strategy, even if perfectly executed, could never have done." Riccitello said that the struggle wasn't over though, and that while the company had won a few of its battles over the last four years - and investors were starting to respond to the changes it had made - there was still lots more to do. "I'm not standing in front of shareholders in a flight suit claiming mission accomplished," he said. "The lesson isn't over, [but] we've learned a lot."

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34796/EA_CEO_John_Riccitielln_Learning_From_Failures.php]





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[AndyFromMonday]

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I was a bit mislead by the title... I had a list of EA failures in mind that I would have liked to see them learn from.

 

[Paul Hearding]

The gaming world is changing very rapidly indeed. It certainly is going to be "adapt or die" for a lot of these big companies like EA. I agree that failure is always a part of eventual success. So, let's hope EA has finally turned the corner.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Well, if they have truly learned from their failure, that is a good thing I suppose.

Here?s to hoping they can change even more

 

[Hungry Donner]

Learning from your mistakes is very important, and there are times you're going to fail and it's good to deal with this positively . . . but many of EA's current practices specifically drive me away from them so I question if they've come away from past failures with the best lessons.

 

[fabiosooner]

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

Sales say otherwise. At the end of the day, what a handful of fans think doesn't really matter if it goes against what the public at large have to say with their wallets. And it doesn't apply to EA only but to ANY other publisher or studio out there, be it big or small.

Old, grumpy fans should be thankful that Mass Effect 2 didn't ditch all the narrative stuff to turn into a full-fledged Gears clone, and that Dragon Age II didn't turn into a pure button-mashing/mouseclick fest akin to a 3D version of Diablo II. That's what would happen if these franchises were in the hands of, say, Activision. This shows EA still cares at least some about these games' core concepts. One can whine whatever one wants about the changes made in the latest installments, but both games are still about the narrative, branching paths and whatnot. That's way more than one could ever expect from a big publisher before.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

... in your opinion.

I much preferred ME2 and DA2 to both of the first games.

 

[Dense_Electric]

Sales say otherwise.

Sales do not equal quality.

 

[ratman995]

Meh EA is still bad in my books for destroying the simcity franchise, spore, the sims (DLC really?) Maxis basically. Also destroying the pandemic who made the simply excellent mercenaries was a little bit silly

 

[Rect Pola]

Let people go huh? Maybe you shouldn't have let go of your MARKETING DEPARTMENT. Sheesh! Your ad campaigns are like the PETA of our industry; pushing the image of everything uninformed outsiders fear and assume are blights of our medium.

 

[Jumwa]

As much as they still have their problems, I am glad to say that EA seems to be improving. Keeping in mind, this was a company built on releasing the same game (or a worse version of the same game) every year endlessly, who bought out talented companies, gutted and ruined them, then pumped out more crap.

 

[JDKJ]

Sales say otherwise.

Sales do not equal quality.

No, but sales are what influence the decision-making processes of a business. They ain't gonna sacrifice sales for quality -- whatever "quality" equals.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

If learning from more failures means rising higher equally to how many times you've failed miserably, I'm looking forward to the great accomplishments EA is going to achieve as they have the nasty habit of fucking up frequently...and quite severely at that.

 

[shadowmagus]

Let the EA bashing commence.

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

And that's your opinion. I'll agree that DA2 was not what it could have been, but ME2 was worlds beyond it's predecessor.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

Sales say otherwise. At the end of the day, what a handful of fans think doesn't really matter if it goes against what the public at large have to say with their wallets. And it doesn't apply to EA only but to ANY other publisher or studio out there, be it big or small.

Old, grumpy fans should be thankful that Mass Effect 2 didn't ditch all the narrative stuff to turn into a full-fledged Gears clone, and that Dragon Age II didn't turn into a pure button-mashing/mouseclick fest akin to a 3D version of Diablo II. That's what would happen if these franchises were in the hands of, say, Activision. This shows EA still cares at least some about these games' core concepts. One can whine whatever one wants about the changes made in the latest installments, but both games are still about the narrative, branching paths and whatnot. That's way more than one could ever expect from a big publisher before.

Actually, any fan has the right to protest what EA is doing to Bioware. In fact, we could be doing more to stop them from ruining perfectly good franchises but unfortunately they the last 2 games to come out from Bioware have all focused more on tits, ass and the shooting aspect attempting to appeal to the large shooter crowd. The fact of the matter still remains, EA ruined a perfectly good studio.

We should be THANKFUL?! I'm sorry, but I'm NOT going to be thankful for ditching what made the game an RPG and turning it into a TPS. I'm not going to be grateful to EA for ruining a perfectly decent game and I'm sure as hell not going to be grateful to EA for turning Dragon Age into what can only be described AS a button mashing, action focused piece of shit.

EA doesn't give two shits about the core concept of what makes a game an RPG. They're simply trying to make the transition easier. Mass Effect 2 ditched a lot of the things that made it an RPG in favor of more action oriented gameplay and with the 3rd game they flat out said that the main focus this time around is going to be entirely on the action. Hell, they did the same with Dragon Age. I'm not going to be grateful to EA. What I am going to do is spend my money on other games.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Let the EA bashing commence.

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

And that's your opinion. I'll agree that DA2 was not what it could have been, but ME2 was worlds beyond it's predecessor.

If you like Third Person Shooters then sure, Mass Effect 2 wasn't bad, it was mediocre. From a roleplaying and story standpoint it was absolutely terrible.

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

... in your opinion.

I much preferred ME2 and DA2 to both of the first games.

Like I've said before, as action games both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 aren't bad. Unfortunately, they're extremely mediocre. You're playing a dumbed down RPG that tries to be a shooter with shooting mechanics that do not compare to other run of the mill third person shooters.

 

[WanderingFool]

Let the EA bashing commence.

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

And that's your opinion. I'll agree that DA2 was not what it could have been, but ME2 was worlds beyond it's predecessor.

I havent played DA2, so no comment. On ME2, I felt that for all the steps forward it went, other elements went back an equal number of steps. And while it can be argued that they streamlined the experience, I still think they just gutted some of the RPG mechanics to improve the shooting mechanics... oh, and I fucking hate the ammo. The guns had infinite ammo, and no matter how you spin it, they went backwards.

 

[RvLeshrac]

The way EA ruined the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises was just marvelous. I'm guessing "embracing failure" means buying good studios and turning their games into abominations of what they used to be.

Sales say otherwise. At the end of the day, what a handful of fans think doesn't really matter if it goes against what the public at large have to say with their wallets. And it doesn't apply to EA only but to ANY other publisher or studio out there, be it big or small.

Old, grumpy fans should be thankful that Mass Effect 2 didn't ditch all the narrative stuff to turn into a full-fledged Gears clone, and that Dragon Age II didn't turn into a pure button-mashing/mouseclick fest akin to a 3D version of Diablo II. That's what would happen if these franchises were in the hands of, say, Activision. This shows EA still cares at least some about these games' core concepts. One can whine whatever one wants about the changes made in the latest installments, but both games are still about the narrative, branching paths and whatnot. That's way more than one could ever expect from a big publisher before.

Actually, any fan has the right to protest what EA is doing to Bioware. In fact, we could be doing more to stop them from ruining perfectly good franchises but unfortunately they the last 2 games to come out from Bioware have all focused more on tits, ass and the shooting aspect attempting to appeal to the large shooter crowd. The fact of the matter still remains, EA ruined a perfectly good studio.

We should be THANKFUL?! I'm sorry, but I'm NOT going to be thankful for ditching what made the game an RPG and turning it into a TPS. I'm not going to be grateful to EA for ruining a perfectly decent game and I'm sure as hell not going to be grateful to EA for turning Dragon Age into what can only be described AS a button mashing, action focused piece of shit.

EA doesn't give two shits about the core concept of what makes a game an RPG. They're simply trying to make the transition easier. Mass Effect 2 ditched a lot of the things that made it an RPG in favor of more action oriented gameplay and with the 3rd game they flat out said that the main focus this time around is going to be entirely on the action. Hell, they did the same with Dragon Age. I'm not going to be grateful to EA. What I am going to do is spend my money on other games.

People said EA "ruined APB," even though EA had absolutely *ZERO* input into the development process, and warned RTW that releasing the game in the half-assed state it was in at launch was a bad idea.

People said SOE "ruined Vanguard," despite SOE being the *last* publisher to pick up the game, and despite the developers constantly re-writing entire sections of the game on a yearly basis, missing every single development milestone and deadline by years.

You work at EA? You know what control EA exercises? Has Bioware come out and said that EA forced them to make all the changes? No, they haven't. In fact, Bioware has lauded all the changes they were "forced" to make. They seem to be incredibly happy with the design decisions they made in DA2 and ME2.