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[keit4]

Well, now it's matter of time that the people realize that EA's problem is not called Riccitiello.

 

[Hoodbury]

Amazed it didn't happen sooner. I'm more interested to see if this has any effect at all on EA and Valve's relationship. I'd love to see Mass Effect 3 on Steam.

Not only that but the EA and Nintendo relationship as well.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Don't worry, John will find a job tomorrow in the nearest business to his house.

 

[DJIzana]

Yoichi Wada next, please!

 

[rakkadakka]

What will become of EA now, I wonder...

Probably not much. They'll get another guy who will lead the company in the same fashion.

 

[Interfectum]

However, it currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued in January, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. EA's shareholders and employees expect better and I am accountable for the miss.

IE: Sorry about SWTOR and Dead Space bros....

 

[Twenty7KVN]

Leaving the NBA video game market for 2K to completely gobble-up is reason alone for letting him go.

I would rather them leave than keep releasing the same crap.Although 2k hasn't done any better in my opinion.

 

[thumb]

Riccitiello at least personally played hard-core games such as Bioshock. And early into his tenure he invested in creative risks like Brutal Legend, Spore, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space. Think about this for a moment: He gave Tim Schafer millions of dollars to develop an RTS action game about a roadie.

Without knowing the behind-the-scenes details, it's hard to make a solid judgment about the effect of him leaving. But I'm not certain that it will ultimately be better for gamers.

 

[Scum]

Wasn't there a rumour last year that investors and others at EA wanted him gone?

 

[Tathanen]

My god, the youth.

 

[Bluth54]

Amazed it didn't happen sooner. I'm more interested to see if this has any effect at all on EA and Valve's relationship. I'd love to see Mass Effect 3 on Steam.

Yeah I hope the next CEO will be willing to put their games on Steam again.

 

[Derrick01]

Ya, I feel like if Derrick spent about 30 minutes Google searching 'Robert Kotick' he would change his mind and come back with quite a bit of venom to spew.

I know all about Kotick and I still say the people who think he's even anywhere near the kind of evil that Riccitiello is needs to sit down for a long history lesson.

edit: Don't mistake that as me liking Kotick either. He's just Satan's number 2 compared to EA.

 

[faridmon]

Wasn't Riccitiello the driving force behind the first game getting made in the first place?

CEO change isn't going to suddenly make EA be like "man, fuck profits. Games!"

Well, he was certainly the driving seat behind not greenlighting the second one, that is for sure. Also, with the right amount of expectation and promotion, the sequel could sell way better than the first one. Dead Space wasn't multimillion seller anyway, and that got a sequels.

 

[Saige]

Well this was a long time coming.

Still don’t expect EA to actually be less awful however, their whole focus has become so repulsive to me as a customer.

 

[antitrop]

Yeah I never understood the ultimate hate for Kotick and Activision. Yeah they're not saints but he's nowhere near as bad as current EA and Ubisoft at times.

You're being too near-sighted. You have to look back a bit further. As I said before, Kotick has been purposefully keeping his head down recently, but this was not always the case.

 

[ramoisdead]

While I'm glad he's no longer fronting EA, I do wish him well and hopefully he bounces back. Please, let this be the road where we will see a Road Rash reboot by Criterion...with no online-DRM of course.

 

[massoluk]

To think a lot of us have very high expectation of him when he became CEO and released so many quirky games.

 

[Pociask]

With one down, who else is left to see go? Kotick? Wada? Reggie?

Reggie seems pretty tied to the hip to Iwata. I would think they are safe until/unless the Wii U bombs against actual competition (not against Sony PR events).

Kotick is still CEO of the company that makes the most popular FPS in the world, right? And has the most popular and profitable MMO in the world? Yeah, I think Mr. Cardboard Box Manufacturer is okay.

Don't worry, John will find a home for a night at the location nearest to his job.

Fixed.

 

[FlyinJ]

I dunno, the guy came onboard to EA when they were churning out sequel after sequel... he took the risk on some great new IP.

I imagine whoever is going to replace him is going to try to keep things as "safe" as possible, probably by monetizing all existing IP into microtransation-based freemium.

 

[SirIgbyCeaser]

Riccitiello's Partners program brought us some great games, more good than bad.

Hope the new EA head boss is as cocky as he was. Steers the company wherever he likes without fear of consequence.

Worse case scenery is EA abandons everything except battlefield and sports titles. Turning all their developers and franchises to mobile IOS and Android.

That's probably what the stock holders would like.

PS: I bet the fall of the rumored nintendo partnership is what gave him the boot. Supposedly EA was to do the online for the wii-u, nintendo than falling out of the deal.

I think they actually dodged a bullet but maybe not.

 

[Suzzopher]

Well, now it's matter of time that the people realize that EA's problem is not called Riccitiello.

Indeed. I fully expect things to get a whole lot worse.

 

[diamount]

He's worse for gamers who would like to play something other than COD. Obviously, he's much better for shareholders.

I'm a gamer, though, so I think the view that Kotick's way is a success and Riccitiello's way is a failure is really depressing. I think it's weird that GAF is so anti-EA/Riccitiello.

I think that should be obvious, EA hate is rife with Simcity's debacle.

 

[TalesOfWin]

He's worse for gamers who would like to play something other than COD. Obviously, he's much better for shareholders.

I'm a gamer, though, so I think the view that Kotick's way is a success and Riccitiello's way is a failure is really depressing. I think it's weird that GAF is so anti-EA/Riccitiello.

This.

 

[Sky Chief]

Don't worry, John will find a job tomorrow in the nearest business to his house.

haha

 

[Data West]

The head of EA Sports during the NBA Live / Elite fiasco was Peter Moore.

NBA Street HD Collection.

 

[Red Chocobo]

Like Kaz, he looks better older than he did when he was young :/

 

[Hot Coldman]

I would rather them leave than keep releasing the same crap.Although 2k hasn't done any better in my opinion.

Their basketball game has Jay-Z. Jay-Z! Clearly it's superior.

 

[Sephzilla]

Riccitiello at least personally played hard-core games such as Bioshock. And early into his tenure he invested in creative risks like Brutal Legend, Spore, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space. Think about this for a moment: He gave Tim Schafer millions of dollars to develop an RTS action game about a roadie.

Without knowing the behind-the-scenes details, it's hard to make a solid judgment about the effect of him leaving. But I'm not certain that it will ultimately be better for gamers.

That's part of the problem though. Don't spend too much money on something that isn't going to sell well enough to make up for it.

 

[Duxxy3]

Just my opinion but they need someone that can restore the good name that EA once had.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Disappointing to see Riccitiello go, and the positive response surrounding it on here.

EA does a lot of stupid shit, but it does a lot of good stuff too, which GAF seems to ignore. Riccitiello moved EA away from making crappy licensed games and focused on strong new IPs like Dead Space and Dragon Age.

And before someone says he ruined them, keep in mind that that is thoroughly subjective, and more importantly, they wouldn't have existed in the first place had EA not financed them.

This is true, I started to like EA from 2007 and on, when they came up with stuff like Mirrors Edge, DS and DA. They made some unpopular decisions, but I enjoy EA games more than ever. Sadly the likes of Dead Space went down the shitter but also because the sales of the great first game weren't great. They had to do something that had sales potential, and thats in the eyes of a lot of them more streamlining and online play sadly.

 

[Iacobellis]

My god, the youth.

Youth, you say?

 

[DaBoss]

Well, now it's matter of time that the people realize that EA's problem is not called Riccitiello.

Yea, I don't think it's him either. Though if a new CEO does change the vision/direction of the company, it could lead to good results.

 

[AuthenticM]

Would Peter Moore make a good CEO ? I mean, didn't he like, destroy Sega ?

 

[PBY]

That's part of the problem though. Don't spend too much money on something that isn't going to sell well enough to make up for it.

I mean, you can't have it both ways- do you want him to take creative risks or not?

 

[antitrop]

He's worse for gamers who would like to play something other than COD. Obviously, he's much better for shareholders.

I'm a gamer, though, so I think the view that Kotick's way is a success and Riccitiello's way is a failure is really depressing. I think it's weird that GAF is so anti-EA/Riccitiello.

Well-stated.

 

[Twenty7KVN]

Like Kaz, he looks better older than he did when he was young :/

Dat special sauce gets better with age.

 

[xenist]

First: Nothing is gonna change.

Second: There's however nothing wrong with people being glad that someone who presided over one of the most anticonsumer runs in recent memory is leaving.

Third: All this Jeff Green talk was misguided. EA is The One Ring.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Not going to celebrate, because I'm sure he was canned for not being aggressive enough with the douche tactics. I expect EA to become even more extreme with this move.

 

[Foffy]

Reggie seems pretty tied to the hip to Iwata. I would think they are safe until/unless the Wii U bombs against actual competition (not against Sony PR events).

Kotick is still CEO of the company that makes the most popular FPS in the world, right? And has the most popular and profitable MMO in the world? Yeah, I think Mr. Cardboard Box Manufacturer is okay.

Where does that leave Wada? I mean, it's been under his reign that one of the most popular RPG series in video games has fallen into a crater. FFXIV, the constant XIII sequels, and the development hell of Versus XIII are all under his reign. Wada has essentially made Square-Enix's best assets just whatever Eidos has.

 

[Viola of the Abyss]

I'm still trying to understand if this is good or bad for the future games made by Electronic Arts.

Things can get worse than this...

Most depends on who replaces him.

Not going to celebrate, because I'm sure he was canned for not being aggressive enough with the douche tactics. I expect EA to become even more extreme with this move.

Same here... It's definitely too early to celebrate.

 

[Mugatu]

You're being too near-sighted. You have to look back a bit further. As I said before, Kotick has been purposefully keeping his head down recently, but this was not always the case.

You might be right - but as a gamer he definitely hasn't impact me as negatively as Riccitiello has.

Kotick's problem IMO is that he's just a businessman who happens to be involved in making money off of games - not a gamer doing what he loves. However Riccitiello seemed to actively hate gamers.

 

[Rapstah]

I'm going to say Patrick Bach just because it's a guy who has no shot at actually getting a position in EA proper and because it'll make people think I have some sort of deep insider information when Patrick Bach is appointed CEO next Thursday.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

This is definitely going to turn out to be a case of better the devil you know.

 

[Iacobellis]

Like Kaz, he looks better older than he did when he was young :/

Wow, I wasn't the only one who thought this?

 

[Kun Aguero]

Will this sacrificial lamb make a difference to the business practices of EA, and how they are ultimately perceived by gamers? I hope so, but I doubt it. I shall remain sceptical until proven otherwise.

 

[AngryMoth]

I don't know how to feel about this. Things could get better but equally they could get much worse depending on the type of person they appoint. I doubt it will be Peter Moore. I just pray it isn't someone who only makes decisions based off numbers and believes that in 2 years time all games will be freemium, social, always connected services.

It's interesting time for this to happen, right after the Sim City debacle. Hopefully this means they are interested in repairing their public image.

 

[Mandoric]

I can imagine that the last thing Larry Probst wants to do at this stage of his life is step into a CEO role.

That's what makes all of this so stunning. What happened that was a so bad they couldn't even do the normal "stay til the end of the year while we do our search" thing that is generally the norm for major public companies? TWO WEEKS? WTF?

To be exact, he's getting the boot one day before the end of their year.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Would Peter Moore make a good CEO ? I mean, didn't he like, destroy Sega ?

Sega had just been Stolar'd when Moore showed up.

Moore did great, but it was a losing battle anyhow. He later did great at Microsoft.

 

[Chronoja]

Question. Their approach with Origin in the PC space, keeping large titles as origin exclusive. Has this been a successful tactic for them?

I am legitimately curious, not as a Steam vs Origin stance or anything, because I do consider the approach, while slightly anti consumer, as rather a smart way to attract attention to your platform.

I know they've spouted out self congratulatory phrases before like "fastest growing platform in the PC space" or a few x million users or something, but overall has it gained them money? compared to say putting the games on steam also so you have a wider consumer base?

It was a bold move they made, I just wonder if it has been a move that added to this current situation.

 

[TalesOfWin]

I know all about Kotick and I still say the people who think he's even anywhere near the kind of evil that Riccitiello is needs to sit down for a long history lesson.

edit: Don't mistake that as me liking Kotick either. He's just Satan's number 2 compared to EA.

uh kotick was admitted being a scammer in his younger age. Didnt he fool someone by replacing a super computer with a some shitty computer and selling that? I bet Riccitellio didn't do stupid shit like that.