EA CEO leaving at end of month

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CPA

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
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John Riccitiello, the man who basically said he's never green-lighted a non-multiplayer game (ie, online DRM) and is proud of it, is stepping down March 30th.

Looks like EA's January numbers are coming in on the low end. I would hate to see March after the Simcity debacle. Actually, I am really interested in see March.
 
KaOTiK

KaOTiK

Lifer
Feb 5, 2001
10,877
8
81
Simcity sold 1.1m they announced

I liked Riccitiello at the beginning, he seemed like he wanted to turn EA around and for a short period he did. But it was like Activision/Bobby Kotick pissed him off taking the crown for most hated away so he went balls deep to get that rep back to EA.
 
CPA

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
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0
KaOTiK said:
Simcity sold 1.1m they announced

I liked Riccitiello at the beginning, he seemed like he wanted to turn EA around and for a short period he did. But it was like Activision/Bobby Kotick pissed him off taking the crown for most hated away so he went balls deep to get that rep back to EA.
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Yep, that's what they're saying, which is basically to change the focus off the January numbers.
 
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drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,034
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It isn't piracy (or even online DRM) that's the issue. It's a lack of compelling, quality games that's the issue.

When you continue to churn out the same game with a new skin every single year, people just aren't going to buy it. And when you churn out half-finished, buggy, uninspired, dumbed-down crap, people also aren't going to buy it.
 
M

Mopetar

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
8,152
6,867
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drebo said:
It isn't piracy (or even online DRM) that's the issue. It's a lack of compelling, quality games that's the issue.

When you continue to churn out the same game with a new skin every single year, people just aren't going to buy it. And when you churn out half-finished, buggy, uninspired, dumbed-down crap, people also aren't going to buy it.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. There are plenty of games that are new, well-made, and bug-free that still do poorly. Look at something like Okami that was critically praised but had poor sales. On the other hand you've got CoD, which is basically the same game with a new campaign tacked on. Going to sell like crazy.

A lot of interesting, new and innovative games are released all the time. Sometimes they turn out like portal and take off, other times they're just passed over completely. Kind of a crap shoot.
 
ImpulsE69

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
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Yea look at all the fools on these forums alone jumping on the pre-order bandwagon alone...people aren't real bright :)
 
mindcycle

mindcycle

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2008
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I wonder who will be the next out of touch CEO to captain the EA failboat. Actually, I take that back.. Like it will matter!
 
blastingcap

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
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GOOD RIDDANCE. To EA: I still refuse to be nickle-and-dimed on DLC. Issue GOTY editions with full DLC or I will simply not even buy the base game, and thus you get ZERO revenue. Retailers and etailers ought to know by now how price discrimination works in wrangling revenue out of property.
 
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dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
2,591
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71
drebo said:
It isn't piracy (or even online DRM) that's the issue. It's a lack of compelling, quality games that's the issue.

When you continue to churn out the same game with a new skin every single year, people just aren't going to buy it. And when you churn out half-finished, buggy, uninspired, dumbed-down crap, people also aren't going to buy it.
Click to expand...

Someone please explain to me how several of the top-selling games during this generation actively disprove your point? 5 of the top 10 360 games are in the Call of Duty series. 8 of the top 10 are from 2 franchises. 9 of the top 10 involve gun-based combat. Sounds pretty repetitive to me. http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=X360&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

What was that about same game with a new skin and people not buying it? :whiste:
 
Rinaun

Rinaun

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2005
1,196
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I sadly don't think a new CEO is going to save the attitude the EA campus in Redwood has evolved over the years with John Riccitiello. EA has in the past years moved to strictly pumping titles out and not the actual creative direction of their games. It didn't help they bought out each IP and removed the people who made them unique. Just because you own an IP does not mean the people you've now hired to run it have a clue about how the fan base values that intellectual property. Sims is a great example (they cut things out of the third game, made them into expansion packs for more $$$$, game is NOTHING like the last sim city).

I want to comment though on something he was pressuring for; Multiplayer-only games. I think he had the right base idea, but the fervor he pushed this agenda with was way too hard. If he went with the approach of "Guys, Singleplayer games are great but we need a 2>1 ratio with multiplayer to single player games" he might of received a ton less flak. The benefits to having a multiplayer over singleplayer game comes from the replayability with friends, along with having better DRM control. I don't think anyone is against tastefully done DRM. With multiplayer games, DRM is typically handled with Cd keys and thus if you don't have your own "copy" playing online is almost impossible.

dagamer34 said:
Someone please explain to me how several of the top-selling games during this generation actively disprove your point? 5 of the top 10 360 games are in the Call of Duty series. 8 of the top 10 are from 2 franchises. 9 of the top 10 involve gun-based combat. Sounds pretty repetitive to me. http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=X360&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

What was that about same game with a new skin and people not buying it? :whiste:
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I'm going to bet if you remove console statistics from the PC statistics, COD drops from #1 sold to like 3-4th if not completely off the charts. Consoles are an entirely different social beast. Consoles are mainly Multiplayer based, played by a significantly larger portion of younger gamers, and because of this the popular games end up being rehashes because why stop selling something when you can add 4 new guns and resell it? It's also a ton easier when you control the press/reviews for your newest title and pay for it to get a 85%+. Every review I've found worth salt says since MW2 it's been basically the same game, new high tech guns, more unlocks, and a few new maps/missions. How is this different than a DLC?

A dlc is only 10$.

edit: playing with vg charts. If it isn't obvious, just switching from Xbox360 to PC causes the genres to completely change. I'd say Ea is being kept afloat by big titles like BF3 and Sims in the PC sector.
 
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ImpulsE69

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
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I think their multiplayer stance is incorrect (or at least I would like to believe). I say this because a single player game you finish and then move on to the next game. Therefore, you SHOULD be selling more games.

Assuming a good multiplayer game, you can play that for years and not need a new game. I will say that obviously the small yearly update "new" game method has worked forever for them (EA Sports anyone?) and CoD is also a good example of this working, but in practice it just shouldn't. The only reason they do is because most people want to play with other people and they will play what everyone they know is playing.
 
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lenablue

Member
Feb 15, 2013
32
0
0
ImpulsE69 said:
I think their multiplayer stance is incorrect (or at least I would like to believe). I say this because a single player game you finish and then move on to the next game. Therefore, you SHOULD be selling more games.

Assuming a good multiplayer game, you can play that for years and not need a new game. I will say that obviously the small yearly update "new" game method has worked forever for them (EA Sports anyone?) and CoD is also a good example of this working, but in practice it just shouldn't. The only reason they do is because most people want to play with other people and they will play what everyone they know is playing.
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Game is not my field. But I would like to know about it.
I dont agree with you.:|
 
Rinaun

Rinaun

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2005
1,196
1
81
ImpulsE69 said:
I think their multiplayer stance is incorrect (or at least I would like to believe). I say this because a single player game you finish and then move on to the next game. Therefore, you SHOULD be selling more games.

Assuming a good multiplayer game, you can play that for years and not need a new game. I will say that obviously the small yearly update "new" game method has worked forever for them (EA Sports anyone?) and CoD is also a good example of this working, but in practice it just shouldn't. The only reason they do is because most people want to play with other people and they will play what everyone they know is playing.
Click to expand...

See, you are forgetting the many variables in publishing. Spitting out a game every 6 months is NOT preferable to spitting out a game once every year, selling tons of copies (plus more for people replacing damaged copies), and milking that title dry.

I could get all anal in my descriptions, but let me just say that adding new crap to an existing popular game versus developing a new game is going to make you so much money it's not even funny. If this wasn't true, why would companies like RIOT, activision etc be milking one IP so hard? It's because hiring a few people to do addons/DLC is much much more effective. IT's not until you have competition that redoing something from the ground up becomes critical.

Also, gamers don't play the same copy of one game forever. It took a while, but one CS:S came out people slowly came over from 1.6. After enough people came, more people left 1.6 until you were left with only people who felt that 1.6 was better gameplay, and ccs:s became the go-to game. This stuff happens so rarely with console games it's not even funny. I'd love to see someone load up MW1 for the xbox and find more than 300 people playing.
 
AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,635
3,410
136
Markbnj said:
Consumers don't deal with Monsanto, or don't realize they are dealing with them. Most of them have probably never heard of the company.
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Just looked up the Wikipedia entry for Monsanto. The amount of evil from this company goes on and on and on.
 
mindcycle

mindcycle

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2008
1,901
0
76
Markbnj said:
Consumers don't deal with Monsanto, or don't realize they are dealing with them. Most of them have probably never heard of the company.
Click to expand...

Yep. They are somewhat hidden from the public by their parent companies and butt buddies in congress. Their day will come though.. more and more people are getting wise to their tactics and have now heard their name. After California narrowly lost the GMO labeling bill (of which Monsanto spent millions to fight against) many other states are proposing the same thing. It's only a matter of time..

EA truly pales in comparison to the evil that is Monsanto.
 
paperfist

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,521
280
126
www.the-teh.com
KaOTiK said:
Simcity sold 1.1m they announced

I liked Riccitiello at the beginning, he seemed like he wanted to turn EA around and for a short period he did. But it was like Activision/Bobby Kotick pissed him off taking the crown for most hated away so he went balls deep to get that rep back to EA.
Click to expand...

Wonder how many they would have sold if it weren't for the connection difficulties and bugs...
 
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DeadFred

Platinum Member
Jun 4, 2011
2,740
29
91
No worries the next EA CEO has already been found.........

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