EA boss pushes for innovative games
Top in the industry news today is Electronic Arts‘ John Riccitiello, newly appointed CEO, who has voiced out a call to the industry to drop the franchise spam mechanic and turn to the development of innovative games. This historically marks the first opinion that the 47-year old EA executive has so publicly made known since active appointment in April.
“We’re boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play,” said Riccitiello, encouraging a new, aggressive approach toward “casual” gaming and new sales strategies. Paying US$ 50 to US$ 60 for 40-hour long game discs that very few players will finish would soon be a thing of the past.
“For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat. There’s been lots of product that looked like last year’s product, that looked a lot like the year before,” Riccitiello commented. EA’s own management had downplayed the idea of undertaking challenges to re-invent or innovate games years before, and the new direction pointed out by Riccitiello is a major departure from the company’s own yearly series releases.
Analysts have noted that adoption of the new generation of game consoles or even new hardware for PCs have been slower to date, and Electronic Arts has been suffering a lot more than other major players in the game industry. The return for their research & development into next-gen games has been reciprocated with delay as of late, and speculators eye this as a major problem.
It’s not the first time that top brass from a reputable game company has voiced a need for change, but there has yet to be a major entity to grab the torch and lead the industry away from its current direction. Whether or not EA will be that leader, no one can say for sure. But industry analysts speculate a forthcoming industry-wide tremor at the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit – stirred by Riccitiello’s bold words.
Via The Wall Street Journal Online
Top in the industry news today is Electronic Arts‘ John Riccitiello, newly appointed CEO, who has voiced out a call to the industry to drop the franchise spam mechanic and turn to the development of innovative games. This historically marks the first opinion that the 47-year old EA executive has so publicly made known since active appointment in April.
“We’re boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play,” said Riccitiello, encouraging a new, aggressive approach toward “casual” gaming and new sales strategies. Paying US$ 50 to US$ 60 for 40-hour long game discs that very few players will finish would soon be a thing of the past.
“For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat. There’s been lots of product that looked like last year’s product, that looked a lot like the year before,” Riccitiello commented. EA’s own management had downplayed the idea of undertaking challenges to re-invent or innovate games years before, and the new direction pointed out by Riccitiello is a major departure from the company’s own yearly series releases.
Analysts have noted that adoption of the new generation of game consoles or even new hardware for PCs have been slower to date, and Electronic Arts has been suffering a lot more than other major players in the game industry. The return for their research & development into next-gen games has been reciprocated with delay as of late, and speculators eye this as a major problem.
It’s not the first time that top brass from a reputable game company has voiced a need for change, but there has yet to be a major entity to grab the torch and lead the industry away from its current direction. Whether or not EA will be that leader, no one can say for sure. But industry analysts speculate a forthcoming industry-wide tremor at the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit – stirred by Riccitiello’s bold words.
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