If hes being sincere, perhaps EA might start going back to the origional business plan of putting the developers first, rather than the homogenous blob it has become. Good to hear | |
If only everyone took some time to think about what a monumental retard they are what a nice world this would be, even if it took him a while to get around to it he still manages to get respect in my oppinion. Am I the only person who kinda gets warm and fuzzy reading this or am I just strange? | |
I'm in shock... because this sounds like the little prayers I make at night may have been heard. Maybe there is a god of video games, and maybe he doesn't hate us for worshipping. | |
I hold EA personally responsible for the fact that I'm not playing Dungeon Keeper 3, Syndicate 3, or Kyrandia 4 right now. They have a lot of redeeming to do. | |
It is tempting to dismiss this as too little, too late, and certainly, EA has a lot of well justified distrust to recover from, but at least it can be hoped for that this new direction is now just smoke and mirrors and EA will stop working as an active and energetic force of Evil, as it were. | |
That is truly amazing, I never really liked EA when interviews and articles showed how poor they were treating their employees in terms of wages, time off, and overtime. I always saw most of their games as a publisher average because when they take over a company they always take all the creativity away in favor of marketing. This may take a while for EA to change but I look foward to seeing what they can do to change the minds of gamers and developers. | |
R.I.P. Bullfrog I miss my Syndicate games. | |
EA seems to be making an effort in trying to change the way things are done in the company, they have made multiple anouncements about doing things diffirently (witch can only be an improvemen). In the press release regarding Starbreeze working together to make a game from a classic franchise the language was very clear on how EA was "handing over the keys" and how "Starbreeze was joining the family". Naturaly this is EA trying to redeem its brand name and there might be a chance that they still will just abuse the companies they bought, but there is nowhere they can go but up, right? | |
If they ruin Bioware, I'd consider that going down even further... especially since Riccitiello orchestrated the whole buyout in the craftiest of ways. | |
I gues your right, but if they do murder will happen! | |
Well if that does make you strange, then you're not alone. It makes me feel a whole lot better knowing that, with the industry saturated with rushed games and corporate greed, the poster-child for companies releasing games before they're ready is seeking to reform itself. I'm getting flashbacks to the EA of the 90's. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go look for my copy of Soviet Strike now. | |
It's definitely too little, but it's never too late - which means there's always time for him to grow the "too little" into something of genuine substance. I'm honestly shocked that he would invoke the names of Origin, Bullfrog and Westwood but it also gives me hope that maybe he's serious about all this. | |
I thought the same thing too, but then I just figured that's what Riccitiello wants us to think... so I'm not holding my breath. I guess we'll find out if he can walk the walk in the next 3 or 4 years. ;-) | |
what with this and their response to the mass effect thing i do actually now see a glimmer of hope from EA, nobody is beyond redemption but for their sins they still have alot of time to pay back in purgetory yet, but i for one will be keeping my fingers crossed, it would be nice if i could buy an EA game without feeling a little guilt about the amount of talent they have snuffed out. | |
It's very interesting to see the changes in EA's behaviour after their executive shuffle and recent buyouts. I'm skeptical, but still hoping for a return to the '80s EA that had both commercial *and* critical success without the "death-cult" corporate culture. -- Steve | |
They can speak whatever language, only their actions will matter. They want to reacquire some fresh workforce to make more stuff, because they've realized they were starting to drag a tad. You truly think they'll drop the corporate working methods which exhaust any soul working for them? One can only hope. | |
The fact that they went and named specific companies strikes me as an extremely good sign. That type of announcement does nothing if not focus stock-holders on any new acquisitions to make sure that the brains aren't being wasted there as well. Riccitiello has already shown he's not stupid, so he's surely aware of that and thus ready for the additional attention the stock-holders are going to be paying. This announcement strikes me as much for the suits inside EA as for us. It's a shot across their bow to let them know that killing good acquisitions off by stifling them is not going to go unnoticed. | |
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EA CEO: We Squandered Acquired Studios
Video game publishing behemoth Electronic Arts has issued the closest thing to a mea culpa as of yet for devouring - some would say destroying - a series of independent developers.
"I think that the idea that you're going to have a top-down process that uses a lot of centralized tools to try and build a common brand with a lot of centralized creative calls is just not a good idea," John Riccitiello, EA's top man, said in a New York Times interview last week about his company's acquisition of outside talent. "It could certainly make for a great case study at Harvard if it worked, but I just don't think it works."
Riccitiello, who reportedly fleshed out his position in a meeting with financial analysts last week, made a startlingly candid admission about EA's record that will certainly come as a surprise to many veteran gamers who have held a long grudge against the company.
"There is no question that Origin and Westwood and Bullfrog don't exist today, and you don't generally buy things in order to close them," Riccitiello said. "Those deals obviously didn't work the way we anticipated. The leaders in those organizations got set up where they thought we were bringing in a bureaucracy. We were bringing in centralized tools and technology that homogenized the output and slowed them down. They weren't listened to."
The NY Times piece indicates Riccitiello "is promising a new path" that pays greater attention to the creative talent than abstract business-school based models.
"You can't just buy people and attempt to apply some business school synergy to them," Riccitiello said. "It just doesn't work."
Source: NYTimes.com
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