Electronic Arts Chief: We’re Boring People To Death

Electronic Arts new chief executive, John Riccitiello, has told The Wall Street Journal, "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play”.

Was this a fit of creative zeal? Probably not, it’s more likely related to the fact that EA’s most recent announcement regarding its net income showed that it had dropped for the third year in a row: this time by a massive 68% to $76 million (£38m).

Riccitiello who returned to EA in April replacing Larry Probst, also laid into the games industry’s penchant for shovelling out sequels, "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.”

As is now the norm with videogame industry luminaries, Riccitiello, is actually seeking to court the ‘casual gamer’. The WSJ explains that, “Mr. Riccitiello worries that competition puts the games business ‘at risk of being a little less interesting than Facebook and iPods and the next cool cellphone.’”

You’ve got to be impressed by the chief executive of the biggest software publisher and developer on the planet explaining to his consumers that, well, you’ve being buying product that you thought was imaginative but was in fact on a par with washing powder.

Of course, Riccitiello, can always turn to the ‘previous administration’ (remember, he left EA in 2004) and to the rest of the industry for blame. Let’s hope that his outburst of truth signals a change in the way that games are produced.

^{Source: The Wall Street Journal}