New EA CEO criticizes sequels

[Queasy]

Link - Can Madden? As if!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most video games are "boring" or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world's largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts.

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal in a story posted on its Web site on Sunday.

Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA's former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.

The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

 

[purbeast0]

so basically the CEO of EA is criticizing the whole concept of EA's company.

great idea for a new CEO!

 

[Thraxen]

Interesting. I do agree that there are sometimes too many sequels, but there are also some series I love. I think it should be pointed out that sports games are a bit different though. They really aren't true sequels in the same sense that a game like God of War II is the sequel to God of War. They are more like updated versions of the same game with new rosters. As much as non-sports gamers whine about them, many sports games fans would go crazy if they didn't get their yearly updates.

What I think they should do is offer roster updates for older versions (maybe for couple of years) in the form of DLC. Maybe they could switch to releasing new retail versions every two years with updates for the years in between. I think the end result would be overall better games every two years. I doubt we'll see that though.

 

[iluvdeal]

Given the position large corporations like EA are in, where they need to answer to shareholders and thus focus on the bottomline, how likely is it they will take a gamble on an entirely original game? One that doesn't have a built-in audience due to a sports or movie license tie-in? I'd say the chances are pretty low.

It's nice to see their CEO acknowledge the problem, but I dunno if we'll see anything actually come out of this. Maybe they can aim for at least one non-license related game per year?

 

[Dacalo]

The irony is strong in that article.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
Interesting. I do agree that there are sometimes too many sequels, but there are also some series I love. I think it should be pointed out that sports games are a bit different though. They really aren't true sequels in the same sense that a game like God of War II is the sequel to God of War. They are more like updated versions of the same game with new rosters. As much as non-sports gamers whine about them, many sports games fans would go crazy if they didn't get their yearly updates.

What I think they should do is offer roster updates for older versions (maybe for couple of years) in the form of DLC. Maybe they could switch to releasing new retail versions every two years with updates for the years in between. I think the end result would be overall better games every two years. I doubt we'll see that though.

Those $60 glorified roster updates COULD be turned into $10 downloadable updates if they wanted.

Personally, I don't mind picking up last year's version for cheap. 🙂

 

[lupi]

So they should make more crap titles?

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Thraxen
Interesting. I do agree that there are sometimes too many sequels, but there are also some series I love. I think it should be pointed out that sports games are a bit different though. They really aren't true sequels in the same sense that a game like God of War II is the sequel to God of War. They are more like updated versions of the same game with new rosters. As much as non-sports gamers whine about them, many sports games fans would go crazy if they didn't get their yearly updates.

What I think they should do is offer roster updates for older versions (maybe for couple of years) in the form of DLC. Maybe they could switch to releasing new retail versions every two years with updates for the years in between. I think the end result would be overall better games every two years. I doubt we'll see that though.

Those $60 glorified roster updates COULD be turned into $10 downloadable updates if they wanted.

Personally, I don't mind picking up last year's version for cheap. 🙂

But seeing as how people will line up to buy the "roster update" at full price, changing anything would be as good as burning money.

Edit: I admit that I buy the sports sequels, but it's more than worth it in my eyes. I'll play a RPG once for maybe 30 hours. I'll play a sports game online for hours each week until the new edition comes out, which comes out to hundreds of hours. Plus, even if i'm happy with the game, if I don't buy the new edition, there will be no one left to play with as they all buy the new version.

 

[dighn]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most video games are "boring" or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world's largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts.

Yay more dumbed down, consolified games lacking in depth! The peasants rejoice.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
so basically the CEO of EA is criticizing the whole concept of EA's company.

great idea for a new CEO!

actually, yeah. maybe he'll turn it around and make the company respectable again.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Thraxen
Interesting. I do agree that there are sometimes too many sequels, but there are also some series I love. I think it should be pointed out that sports games are a bit different though. They really aren't true sequels in the same sense that a game like God of War II is the sequel to God of War. They are more like updated versions of the same game with new rosters. As much as non-sports gamers whine about them, many sports games fans would go crazy if they didn't get their yearly updates.

What I think they should do is offer roster updates for older versions (maybe for couple of years) in the form of DLC. Maybe they could switch to releasing new retail versions every two years with updates for the years in between. I think the end result would be overall better games every two years. I doubt we'll see that though.

Those $60 glorified roster updates COULD be turned into $10 downloadable updates if they wanted.

Personally, I don't mind picking up last year's version for cheap. 🙂

But seeing as how people will line up to buy the "roster update" at full price, changing anything would be as good as burning money.

Edit: I admit that I buy the sports sequels, but it's more than worth it in my eyes. I'll play a RPG once for maybe 30 hours. I'll play a sports game online for hours each week until the new edition comes out, which comes out to hundreds of hours. Plus, even if i'm happy with the game, if I don't buy the new edition, there will be no one left to play with as they all buy the new version.

my buddies and i are still on madden 05. i will be buying madden 08 or allpro 2k8 for my ps3 though. i've been buying the new basketball games for the past couple of yrs cause even tho they are fun, even the 2k series lacks the polish of madden. i'm still waiting for a really good basketball game.

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

my buddies and i are still on madden 05. i will be buying madden 08 or allpro 2k8 for my ps3 though. i've been buying the new basketball games for the past couple of yrs cause even tho they are fun, even the 2k series lacks the polish of madden. i'm still waiting for a really good basketball game.

I can't wait to see which football game is better this year. Both of the last two madden games have been disappointing. They seem to have finally focused on gameplay this year, so it should be better. Also, 2k5 is still the best football game i've played. I would still be playing that if Microsoft had seen fit to make it backward compatible. If all 2k8 did was bring that game to next gen with completely new graphics it would probably beat madden.