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John Riccitiello steps down as CEO of Electronic Arts. [Resignation/Farewell Letters]

womp

Member
Return of the king...

220px-Trip_hawkins.jpg
 

Beckx

Member
Why now? What happened?

This is the magic question. You don't casually announce your CEO is leaving in two weeks, with no successor in place, unless something has happened. Right now if Vegas were taking bets, I'd take "Sim City as the final straw that made the board fire him" as safe money.
 
People can add to it. There are literally too many to list for just me.

Hasn't done much to position the company going into next gen; generally happy to rest against historical Sports pillars.

Oh and MoH bombed a small school.

This is the magic question. You don't casually announce your CEO is leaving in two weeks, with no successor in place, unless something has happened. Right now if Vegas were taking bets, I'd take "Sim City as the final straw that made the board fire him" as safe money.

SimCity was a big launch that was completely mishandled from the conception, to launch, to post launch PR; it was a disaster of management.
Am not sure how the CEO can shrug off the inability for the organisation to ask a very simple question "Is the online infrastructure feasible?"

Hes broken too much. This was just the final 'actually John, its not them - its you'
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Exactly. This is the direction EA is heading in. He is being fired because of his hefty investments in the beginning that were gamer friendly. Mobile and annual Madden/Battlefield/FIFA is the future of EA. Expect the worse. Riticello was reacting to the deep shit he put EA in.

No, no he wasn't, if that were the case he would have been dropped in 2009.
 
-Pulled out of Steam and started a competing service that no one wanted and is worse in every way

People can add to it. There are literally too many to list for just me.

Oh shit...

The new CEO could look at the costs of making Origin and say "why are we doing this again when we could just use steam and sell more copies?".

I wanna believe.
 
You know there is the other perspective:

What if Riccitiello was the one who was trying to hinder EA's transition into the pay to reload model? He was probably an old school guy who wanted the old school way of paying for games. Therefore, the rest of EA heads and investors wanted him out since they obviously want to embrace their newer direction. With the success with SimCity and its DRM the rest of the heads are probably optimistic of this model.

Halt the celebrations, things will get worse.
 

Pociask

Member
I'm curious what people found wrong with the direction he was taking EA. My impression is that he was trying to consolidate AAA title development, and heavily invest in freemium games, DLC games, etc. Are those necessarily bad strategies? Does anyone see a new CEO coming in and saying, "Screw it! We're going big on every major gamer platform! We're heavily investing in publishing an avalanche of critically acclaimed titles from indie developers on every Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft platform! Death to Apple and Facebook!"?
 

llehuty

Member
We need a long list of his many "accomplishments" now.

-Bought and crushed Pandemic and participated in Bioware's downfall
-Started project and other anti-consumer tactics
-SimCity fiasco
-The old republic bombing, perhaps the most expensive bust ever
-Pulled out of Steam and started a competing service that no one wanted and is worse in every way

People can add to it. There are literally too many to list for just me.

-Dead Space 3
 
Q

Queen of Hunting

Unconfirmed Member
could be the reason why BF4 wasnt at Sony brief. Peter Moore was at Microsoft and they obviously had this planned for a while so maybe thats why BF4 has its own reveal at GDC now ?
 

unbias

Member
But, he was Clorox and Pepsi, clearly someone like that is perfect for the technology and gaming market! Right? Although dont get too excited people, they might next replace the CEO with a tissue/toilet paper CEO.
 
It's kind of sad, because Riticello invested in IPs like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge that would never have been greenlit in EAs of the past.
Yep he was responsible for EA being really awesome for a while there. But that was a long time ago. Perhaps its best for everyone if he moves on.
 

Adam Blue

Member
He did some pretty good things when he joined EA, like trying to fix C&C3 for the fans and bringing in new IPs. But being risky like that wasn't successful. The company was at a point where it had to produce in a shitty way (by core gamer standards). I'm sure SimCity was the last straw for him.

But I don't blame him for what EA is. I blame the industry and stockholders. He tried, and it didn't work. He's part of a generation where publishers like EA can't work for core gamers or last long for the mainstream.

EDIT: Everyone has had the job where they have to make choices for the bottom line - especially if their initial plans don't pan out.
 

Rolf NB

Member
Whoever replaces him will be just as reviled by GAF, if not more. It's the nature of publically traded companies that the CEO is a cold-blooded heartless motherfucker. There is no other way. Don't expect things to change for the better.
 

Kinyou

Member
"We thank John for his contributions to EA since he was appointed CEO in 2007, especially the passion, dedication and energy he brought to the Company every single day," said Mr. Probst. "John has worked hard to lead the Company through challenging transitions in our industry, and was instrumental in driving our very significant growth in digital revenues. We appreciate John's leadership and the many important strategic initiatives he has driven for the Company. We have mutually agreed that this is the right time for a leadership transition."
Those statements always makes me laugh.

"He's totally awesome and brought the company to new glories, but Jesus Christ, we really need to get rid of him"
 

Rapstah

Member
Hallelujah!

Hopefully EA goes in a different direction now that that dude isn't running shit
Based on how those guys speaking at the investor meeting a month ago sounded, the CEO on his own can't turn everything around. I don't think it's in the new guy's interest to change anything except some superficial details (new exclusive Frostburn engine!) to make an impression.
 
Hoooly. SimCity the final straw? Or was this strategically timed to conincide with the announcement of their next-gen games starting with BF4 so that Peter Moore could be the new face of EA for the next generation?
 
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