Gaming Forums => Nintendo Gaming => Topic started by: Retro Deckades on March 18, 2013, 05:56:03 PM
Title: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Retro Deckades on March 18, 2013, 05:56:03 PM
From IGN:
Electronic Arts' John Riccitiello is stepping down as chief executive officer. He submitted his resignation to EA's board of directors today. Effective March 30, former EA president and CEO Larry Probst will step in as executive chairman while the company searches for a replacement. "We appreciate John's leadership and the many important strategic initiatives he has driven for the Company," Probst said. "We have mutually agreed that this is the right time for a leadership transition." Riccitiello addressed his departure directly in a blog (http://www.ea.com/news/from-john). "My decision to leave EA is really all about my accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year," he said. "It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued to the Street, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. And for that, I am 100 percent accountable." EA's earnings have been on the decline (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/31/ea-earnings-down-despite-fifa-simpsons-tapped-out-sales), and the company recently faced numerous layoffs (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/21/ea-hit-by-layoffs) as well. In a press release statement, Riccitiello said, ""EA is an outstanding company with creative and talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the Company's CEO. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and after six years I feel it is the right time for me pass the baton and let new leadership take the Company into its next phase of innovation and growth. I remain very optimistic about EA's future — there is a world class team driving the Company's transition to the next generation of game consoles."
How might this affect EA's current "relationship" with Nintendo?
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: ShyGuy on March 18, 2013, 06:14:40 PM
Was he source of the alleged falling out between EA and Nintendo? Will Wii U now get better support?
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Shaymin on March 18, 2013, 06:21:04 PM
He's not the one who said Nintendo should go 3rd party, that's Peter Moore... and Moore's the COO. He's in the discussion for the top job, at least.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: ShyGuy on March 18, 2013, 06:24:21 PM
Sony should go third party. I want to play Flower on the Wii U.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on March 18, 2013, 06:25:16 PM
Death to EA
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: ShyGuy on March 18, 2013, 06:30:23 PM
Was he source of the alleged falling out between EA and Nintendo? Will Wii U now get better support?
While the Wii U is still selling between 57,000 and 64,000 units a month, the stockholders will consider not supporting the thing to be a wise financial move.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: BlkPaladin on March 19, 2013, 09:53:54 AM
Yet they support the Vita, which has had that level of sales for more than a year.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: broodwars on March 19, 2013, 09:59:17 AM
Yet they support the Vita, which has had that level of sales for more than a year.
I guess Vita ports are just cheap to make, and right now those very ports are outselling their Wii U counterparts according to NPD. I wish EA would port more interesting games to Vita than their lame Sports games, though.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: shingi_70 on March 19, 2013, 10:06:17 AM
Yet they support the Vita, which has had that level of sales for more than a year.
Well there spors games are probably easy to port between PSV and PS3. not only that but I've heard complaints that the Vita sports games are based on the 2011 games with roster changes.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Louieturkey on March 19, 2013, 12:43:11 PM
Yet they support the Vita, which has had that level of sales for more than a year.
Well there spors games are probably easy to port between PSV and PS3. not only that but I've heard complaints that the Vita sports games are based on the 2011 games with roster changes.
Pretty sure every sports game sans FIFA is based on the 2011 version with roster changes and that version was based on the 2009 version with roster changes. :P
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: alegoicoe on March 20, 2013, 01:38:16 AM
one down and ten thousand other assholes to take his place :cool;
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on March 20, 2013, 06:16:51 PM
Jon who?
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: azeke on March 21, 2013, 12:21:03 AM
The text would have been better but Gimp isn't letting me do anything but the most basic. Tried to add a Drop Shadow even followed tutorials nothing...
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: alegoicoe on March 21, 2013, 01:43:04 PM
The funny thing is that, people talk sh*t about EA all the time but cannot quench their thirst for their games and microtransactions, well i say fuk EA and their games all together until they start respecting their customers once again.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Fatty The Hutt on March 21, 2013, 01:53:27 PM
$30 NFSMW:U is actually a good start, imho.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Ian Sane on March 21, 2013, 03:24:13 PM
The funny thing is that, people talk sh*t about EA all the time but cannot quench their thirst for their games and microtransactions, well i say fuk EA and their games all together until they start respecting their customers once again.
I don't know if it's the same people. I don't buy anything from EA and it isn't even because of their business practices but simply because they fail to make games that interest me. For the most part if you're on a videogame forum talking about games you're not really the target market for a lot of EA's titles. Is Sim City a **** show because a lot of gamers bitched about the DRM and then bought the game anyway or did it sell to the massive audience that knows the Sim City brand? Back in the day Sim City wasn't some obscure PC game for geeks, it was something that seemingly everyone with a computer played along with Myst and Minesweeper. It is the same IP as The Sims which was like the Angry Birds of its time.
EA's biggest brand is Madden. We can bitch about the series going to crap because of the NFL exclusivity but we're not Madden's market. That game sells to the guy who just wants to play as his favourite NFL team and wants and up-to-date roster to do it with. He pretty just needs to the game to run for him to get his NFL fix. The quality standards are incredibly low.
I just don't think that EA's audience is familiar enough with the regular comings and goings of videogames as a whole to know exactly what's going on... until they try to play Sim City and hit a big roadblock. But they didn't know about the DRM beforehand and, even if they did, they're not savy enough to truly understand the full impact of it or the impact just doesn't affect them (EA can shut down the server in a few years but most of that audience will have moved on and will never play this version of Sim City again; keeping the game indefinitely is of no priority to them).
Hell, when EA announced they were putting microtransactions in everything they pretty much admitted that the Farmville audience that falls for that **** are too ignorant of videogaming as a whole to not think of that as weird. They said that that audience thinks that that is just how videogames work. They revealed the intended audience and isn't you or me or anyone who would actually describe themselves as a "gamer". The model is not to succeed on hardcore gamers putting up with bullshit to get their videogame fix but rather on rubes that have been raised on the "pay to proceed" model of videogaming.
Dead Space 3's microtransactions model may rope in some fans of the first games that didn't know that was in store for them but that is not the intended longterm customerbase. They want smartphone rubes to become the fanbase of all of EA's products. They will get some people that bitch but have no self-control but those are just a bonus.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Louieturkey on March 21, 2013, 04:49:03 PM
Dead Space 3's microtransactions model may rope in some fans of the first games that didn't know that was in store for them but that is not the intended longterm customerbase. They want smartphone rubes to become the fanbase of all of EA's products. They will get some people that bitch but have no self-control but those are just a bonus.
Just to let you know, microtransactions are not shoved in your face on DS3. If you didn't know they were there beforehand, you may not ever notice them.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: pokepal148 on March 21, 2013, 05:26:02 PM
Dead Space 3's microtransactions model may rope in some fans of the first games that didn't know that was in store for them but that is not the intended longterm customerbase. They want smartphone rubes to become the fanbase of all of EA's products. They will get some people that bitch but have no self-control but those are just a bonus.
Just to let you know, microtransactions are not shoved in your face on DS3. If you didn't know they were there beforehand, you may not ever notice them.
Indeed. Having just finished the game recently myself, you can easily clear the game without ever needing to even see the microtransaction menu, & you can even get that stuff w/ in-game currency if you so wish.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: alegoicoe on March 21, 2013, 06:04:33 PM
^thats not the point, the point is monetizing games that don't need to be monetized in the first place, it's becoming increasingly common to have microtransaction in games now days, a scary practice if you asked me, luckily am not about EA or Activision for that matter, they are all making shitty games while at the same time ripping off players for map packs and stupid **** that in other times would have been free.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on March 21, 2013, 06:17:10 PM
To follow up on what alegoicoe said, I think most people find the inclusion of microtransactions in Dead Space 3 to be particularly egregious because the series was once thought to belong to the Survival-Horror genre. The idea of microtransactions just seems antithetical to Survival-Horror's traditional focus on scarcity. I think that's what has rubbed many people the wrong way.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: broodwars on March 21, 2013, 06:23:35 PM
To follow up on what alegoicoe said, I think most people find the inclusion of microtransactions in Dead Space 3 to be particularly egregious because the series was once thought to belong to the Survival-Horror genre. The idea of microtransactions just seems antithetical to Survival-Horror's traditional focus on scarcity. I think that's what has rubbed many people the wrong way.
Of the MANY problems Dead Space 3 has, the resource aspect is so completely minor it's almost not worth talking about. Compared to the copy & pasted environments & how every goddamn room in the last half of the game is a monster closet (leading to the game just being utterly boring once you reach the Ice Planet), that's NOTHING.
Also, nothing's being locked-off to you in Dead Space 3 outside of the post-game story DLC. All the equipment related to the gun-crafting that the microtransactions are there for can easily be created using the in-game resources. There's more than enough to go around, & you can use also freely-obtainable ration seals to buy the microtransaction stuff for free anyway.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on March 21, 2013, 06:33:37 PM
I should probably say, I have never even played a Dead Space game. The microtransactions being antithetical to resource conservation gripe was just something I must have picked up through osmosis. I honestly don't even know whether or not Dead Space was ever concerned with resource management.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Shaymin on March 21, 2013, 06:51:32 PM
My platform for EA CEO is very simple: Two Gamepads in every Madden, three patches for every Sim City.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Louieturkey on March 21, 2013, 07:04:45 PM
I should probably say, I have never even played a Dead Space game. The microtransactions being antithetical to resource conservation gripe was just something I must have picked up through osmosis. I honestly don't even know whether or not Dead Space was ever concerned with resource management.
Dead Space is less horror due to resource management (though if you don't aim properly, you can easily run out of ammo) and more about the music and atmosphere and the fact that enemies can pretty much pop out of anywhere. You can decide to corner yourself so nothing can come up behind you, but then find out the enemies can go through the vents and pop up in the wall behind you.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 21, 2013, 07:21:15 PM
Dead Space is less horror due to resource management (though if you don't aim properly, you can easily run out of ammo) and more about the music and atmosphere and the fact that enemies can pretty much pop out of anywhere.
Oddly, that sounds very much like a survival horror game I might actually enjoy. With the possible exception of Eternal and Shattered Memories, neither of which would be thought of as typical, I haven't enjoyed that many horror games. I enjoy games with good atmosphere and a sense of place though.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Oblivion on March 22, 2013, 01:29:44 AM
Dead Space 1 and 2 are very good horror games, and if you want it to be more of a survival horror game, amp up the difficulty. Atmosphere is everything for Dead Space.
Just don't buy the third one.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Louieturkey on March 22, 2013, 01:14:31 PM
First two are definitely great. I highly recommend those as well. I've decided to wait to buy the third one until it's either $20 or they release an SE version with all the DLC included for $30.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Ian Sane on March 22, 2013, 07:26:05 PM
All I heard was that microtransactions are now in Dead Space and that "it sucks now" entirely because of the sheer existence of them.
I gotta say that if a series I was really into, like Zelda, had them put into it, I would be so instinctively against it that I wouldn't really want to take the chance that they're not intrusive or won't hurt my personal experience if I don't pay for them. But then while the first game with them might not be intrusiv,e as they become accepted and take off they may become intrusive in later sequels. If Zelda started having them I would be afraid that by purchasing the game Nintendo would interpret that as me endorsing and supporting microtransactions, when at best I'm merely tolerating them in a context where they don't outright ruin the game. I would rather they get the message of "no microtransactions in Zelda in ANY context", even if that is realistically overkill, to make sure that things never do take a turn for the worst. Don't give them an inch or they'll take a mile, right?
So I can see Dead Space fans wanting to say the same to EA, that they don't want microtransactions in Dead Space in any context, even if done well, so that the concept is not abused in the future. Of course EA always plays a rigged game so they interpreted the low sales as "no one likes Dead Space" and are rumoured to have cancelled the Dead Space 4.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: alegoicoe on March 25, 2013, 09:22:09 PM
There is nothing wrong with microtransactions if they are done right (i.e it's option stuff, like cosmetic skins for multiplayer) or free-to-play.
So you are alright with companies charging for things that in previous generation would have been free, i cant really see the logic in that. :confused;
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 25, 2013, 11:20:24 PM
Wow, you ignored what I wrote. Take LittleBigPlanet for example, Sony continued adding new characters long after the game came out. Under your way of thinking, gamers would only get what is on the disc when its released, and no more updates.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: alegoicoe on March 25, 2013, 11:43:14 PM
Wow, you ignored what I wrote. Take LittleBigPlanet for example, Sony continued adding new characters long after the game came out. Under your way of thinking, gamers would only get what is on the disc when its released, and no more updates.
Am not talking about post game content, which by the way i dont buy, i am talking about mundane in game stuff like clothing and health packs, if you get my meaning.
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 26, 2013, 12:17:57 AM
Those things are usually optional, they don't effect the game and you are not losing anything by not buying them. They are there for those who want them. Nobody loses by them existing, and it doesn't make a game worse, so what is the problem?
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: Halbred on March 26, 2013, 02:42:03 AM
The thing that killed DS3 was its reliance on multiplayer. Even the single-player campaign is basically built around the assumed inclusion of a second player. I'd argue that the entire time you're wandering around the snow-covered canyons of Tau Volantis (there's more than just that), it's supposed to be a multiplayer errand-and-frag-fest. I thought I read somewhere that Riccitiello proudly proclaimed that no single-player games had been approved on his watch, so I assume he marched into Visceral's offices and said "it's gotta have multiplayer. Figure it out."
Title: Re: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down
Post by: broodwars on March 26, 2013, 03:12:34 AM
The thing that killed DS3 was its reliance on multiplayer. Even the single-player campaign is basically built around the assumed inclusion of a second player. I'd argue that the entire time you're wandering around the snow-covered canyons of Tau Volantis (there's more than just that), it's supposed to be a multiplayer errand-and-frag-fest. I thought I read somewhere that Riccitiello proudly proclaimed that no single-player games had been approved on his watch, so I assume he marched into Visceral's offices and said "it's gotta have multiplayer. Figure it out."
That wasn't Jon Riccitiello. That was Frank Gibeau, head of EA Labels and a person who is still at EA in charge of deciding what games get greenlit and with what features.
Link (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-05-ea-gibeau-i-have-not-green-lit-one-game-to-be-developed-as-a-single-player-game)
