Been thinking about how to make this thread for a little while now but it finally came to a head after I finished Dead Space 3 recently. To me, the Dead Space series is a perfect microcosm of Riccitiello's time at the helm of Electronic Arts. Very promising start that grew into something I really enjoyed before they got too greedy and strayed too far from the original vision and brought it all crashing down.
As CEO, Riccitiello certainly had his share of miscalculations, poor decisions, and ideas I disagreed with. He led a failed acquisition of Take Two (instead acquiring Bioware, Pandemic and PopCap) and oversaw some titles that saw brutal backlash from the gaming community, such as Mass Effect 3 and SimCity. He also placed a big bet on Star Wars The Old Republic but chased the WoW subscription model instead of starting with the F2P model which the game has now settled into.
And still, I felt like EA was trying to be more than just a monolithic third party publisher during those years. Starting in 2008, we saw Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Army of Two, one of the best racing games in Burnout Paradise and new takes on Battlefield (Bad Company, designed for consoles and Heroes, F2P designed for the casual crowd). They continued experimenting on expanding their portfolio in 2009 and 2010, with Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2 (Bioware acquisition finally kicking in), Brutal Legend, and Dante's Inferno.
Compare that with EA today - we seem to be back to sports (Madden, FIFA, NHL), racing (Need for Speed), and Star Wars (although this will seemingly span several different types of games). Bioware is working on an alleged Destiny competitor, but the reception for their games has been trending down, culminating in the poorly received Mass Effect Andromeda. The Respawn acquisition was another arrow for the "Kill Call of Duty at any cost" quiver, and mismanagement of the IP (XBox exclusivity for the first game, poor release window for the second) have led it to underperform. Unravel was a breath of fresh air, even if it didn't resonate with me personally - but where are the other titles like it?
I remain very interested in Bioware's new IP as well as whatever Visceral is working on, but there are times when I really miss that half-decade when it felt like the company was betting on the creativity of its own studios to unearth the next big hit.
As CEO, Riccitiello certainly had his share of miscalculations, poor decisions, and ideas I disagreed with. He led a failed acquisition of Take Two (instead acquiring Bioware, Pandemic and PopCap) and oversaw some titles that saw brutal backlash from the gaming community, such as Mass Effect 3 and SimCity. He also placed a big bet on Star Wars The Old Republic but chased the WoW subscription model instead of starting with the F2P model which the game has now settled into.
And still, I felt like EA was trying to be more than just a monolithic third party publisher during those years. Starting in 2008, we saw Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Army of Two, one of the best racing games in Burnout Paradise and new takes on Battlefield (Bad Company, designed for consoles and Heroes, F2P designed for the casual crowd). They continued experimenting on expanding their portfolio in 2009 and 2010, with Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2 (Bioware acquisition finally kicking in), Brutal Legend, and Dante's Inferno.
Compare that with EA today - we seem to be back to sports (Madden, FIFA, NHL), racing (Need for Speed), and Star Wars (although this will seemingly span several different types of games). Bioware is working on an alleged Destiny competitor, but the reception for their games has been trending down, culminating in the poorly received Mass Effect Andromeda. The Respawn acquisition was another arrow for the "Kill Call of Duty at any cost" quiver, and mismanagement of the IP (XBox exclusivity for the first game, poor release window for the second) have led it to underperform. Unravel was a breath of fresh air, even if it didn't resonate with me personally - but where are the other titles like it?
I remain very interested in Bioware's new IP as well as whatever Visceral is working on, but there are times when I really miss that half-decade when it felt like the company was betting on the creativity of its own studios to unearth the next big hit.
