Topic: EA's CEO Jon Riccitiello Stepping Down

[Retro Deckades]

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. "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, and the company recently faced numerous 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?

[ShyGuy]

Was he source of the alleged falling out between EA and Nintendo? Will Wii U now get better support?

[Shaymin]

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.

[ShyGuy]

Sony should go third party. I want to play Flower on the Wii U.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Death to EA

[ShyGuy]

Death to EA

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects was the best fighting game EVAR.

[Ceric]

I wonder how much he gets paid for stepping down self-righteously.  I'm sure its enough for me not to work for 30 years at least.

[TJ Spyke]

I wonder how much he gets paid for stepping down self-righteously.  I'm sure its enough for me not to work for 30 years at least.

This says he will get $1.7 million (how much the remaining 2 years of his contract is worth) plus other benefits.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2013/03/18/john-riccitiello-quits-as-electronic.html

[broodwars]

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.

[BlkPaladin]

Yet they support the Vita, which has had that level of sales for more than a year.

[broodwars]

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.

[shingi_70]

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.

[Louieturkey]

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.

[alegoicoe]

one down and ten thousand other assholes to take his place

[Pixelated Pixies]

Jon who?

[azeke]

Jon who?

You don't know nothing

[S-U-P-E-R]

Oh boy here we go

http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/here-are-your-contestants-for-the-2013-worst-company-in-america-tournament/

[Shaymin]

moar like the worst company in reddit amirite

[Ceric]

[Ceric]

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...

[alegoicoe]

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.

[Fatty The Hutt]

$30 NFSMW:U is actually a good start, imho.

[Ian Sane]

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.

[Louieturkey]

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. 

[pokepal148]

Oh boy here we go

http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/here-are-your-contestants-for-the-2013-worst-company-in-america-tournament/

wheoever made that list is a huge sprint fanboy