EA's Riccitiello: 'Executive Meddling' Pursing Review Scores

Electronic Arts' CEO, John Riccitiello, has apparently told Reuters pursuing review scores "...frequently leads to too much executive meddling".

Speaking to Wall Street analysts about EA's Metacritic average (which has dropped from 77 to 72 year-on-year), Riccitiello is quoted as saying that he, "...wants to avoid the trap of just pursuing a good Metacritic score, a mindset he said frequently leads to too much executive meddling."

He continued, "The process often gets in the way more than it helps. That sort of circus has unfortunately sort of defined our company for too long. And it's not a good process".

This is a more harsh extension of Riccitiello's line from, July last year when he said, “In a weird sort of way, we’re worshipping the game-review gods as opposed to thinking about the marketplace and people who might want to buy our products.”

While the July line took a swipe at 'game-review gods', his recent comment is a pointed criticism of EA's own internal processes when it comes to influencing review scores given in the gaming media. This is supported by the fact that Riccitiello states, "Our core game titles are accurately measured and summarized by these assessments, and that is a very big deal."

So, could it also herald a clear-out of 'meddling' executives by Riccitiello, who rejoined EA as CEO in April of 2007?

Since regaining his seat (he left in 2004) at the head of the world's biggest video games publisher, Riccitiello, has been refreshingly forthright in his opinions on the way Electronic Arts was performing - not in terms of 'shareholder value' and 'going forward 24/7' - in terms of its behaviour towards its consumers.

One of his most outspoken comments came in July of 2007 when he told The Wall Street Journal, "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play”.

Riccitiello's Reuters outing is, however, finished up with a one line quote that confuses the issue somewhat and is contextualised in a discussion regarding review scores given to casual games.

That context sees Metacritic's founder, Marc Doyle, opining that bad review scores for casual games (Mario Party 8 and Carnival are quoted as examples) don't mean poor sales "...like these horrible movies that make millions their first week but critics hate them. Some things are critics-proof but I don't think critics are any less qualified to judge them".

Riccitiello apparently responds with, "You don't cash Metacritic, you cash checks".

^{Source: Reuters}