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EA's John Riccitiello: "Bullfrog, Origin, and Westwood? My bad!"

DMczaf

Member
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6185814.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Ideally, Riccitiello believes, studios within a large publisher should operate like independent studios freed from having to worry about making payroll and strategizing marketing. He said he hoped EA's own internal studios would be like Valve Software or Blizzard Entertainment--self-contained organizations with strong leaders primed for massive growth and creativity.

"The command and conquer model, the command and direct model doesn't work," said Riccitiello. He went on to concede that EA's past post-acquisition tactics backfired badly. Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood--all no longer exist today because something broke. ... and I'll simply state that EA blew it, and to a certain degree, since I was involved, I blew it."

To learn from his mistakes, Riccitiello spoke with unnamed members of the aforementioned dissolved studios. "They told me they were stifled by politics, bureaucracy, and a fact they felt they weren't heard," he said. As a result, he is empowering his studio heads by giving them the corporate equivalent of the Bat-phone. "Large organizations will screw up, and if you have a strong leader at a studio, they'll call me up directly and change the direction of the company."
 

ManaByte

Member
Can anyone please go to some weather site and check the temperature in hell for me? I would but I'm still in shock.
 

ManaByte

Member
WhatRuOn said:
:(
Bullfrog... I loved Theme Hospital

DUNGEON

KEEPER

Best PC game ever made. Putting the rogue into the torture chamber would probably earn it an AO rating these days and get Jack Thompson all pissed at EA.
 

DMczaf

Member
Wario64 said:
Let's kick his ass.

Go ahead and try.

2jdjskz.jpg
 

Elbrain

Suckin' dicks since '66
O.K this deserves a "He defiantly needs a fucking Mexican Style ass wooping" Some one fucking bust out with the VCR CORD!
 

Cheeto

Member
ManaByte said:
DUNGEON

KEEPER

Best PC game ever made. Putting the rogue into the torture chamber would probably earn it an AO rating these days and get Jack Thompson all pissed at EA.
That game definitely rocked as well...I just have found memories of Theme Hospital when I was a kid.
 
Woah... amazing. Definitely too late, but amazing that he'd admit it...

Is he trying to calm people who think that now that EA owns Bioware Bioware is doomed?
 

epmode

Member
Night_Trekker said:
Why are so many un-EA statements coming from EA lately?
For serious. Maybe the competition from Activision is causing them to rethink their strategy. I only hope their upcoming games back up the press.
 
WhatRuOn said:
That game definitely rocked as well...I just have found memories of Theme Hospital when I was a kid.

Theme Hospital was released (though possibly not developed) post-EA acquisition.

Magic Carpet is their best game anyway.
 

LCGeek

formerly sane
Wait a minute someone from EA is owning to the fact this company killed mainstreamed gaming for the most part on pc platform just as much MS did with DX and it's failed promises since inception. Damn hell is certainly freezing over today.
 

muckhole

Member
If he really wants to impress us, how about utilizing some of those dormant IP's (assuming EA still holds them) instead of just bemoaning how they messed them up in the first place?
 

TJ Spyke

Member
Haven't EA sales been decreasing over the last year or so? I know Madden sold a lot less than it did last year. I would guess this is the reason.
 

Joe

Member
stressboy said:
Wasn't UO2 almost done when it got canned?
if i had to guess i think it was about 50%. the pictures of the staff sitting around a campfire burning the code will forever be burnt into my memory :(
 

JeremyR

Member
He forgot to mention Maxis. I know they have division just doing Sims stuff and they are letting Will Wright take forever with Spore, but it's not the same as when they had Maxis around.
 
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