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Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello resigns, Larry Probst appointed Executive Chairman (update)
Electronic Arts has had a rough go of it lately due to the launch difficulties of Sim City. Today, TechCrunch reports that the company is changing its leadership at the top, with CEO John Riccitiello submitting his letter of resignation to the company and stating he will be stepping down on March 30th. Larry Probst, the current Chairman of the Board for EA and CEO of the company before Riccitiello, has been appointed Executive Chairman effective immediately. Probst will lead EA while the board searches for a permanent CEO. Update: The Wall Street Journal got ahold of Riccitiello's internal resignation letter to the game publisher's staff, as well as his letter to Larry Probst. We've added both below the break.
EA: our fastest growing platform is the iPad
There was a time when the majority of games were played on dedicated consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation but, as they say, "those times are a'changin." Speaking to IndustryGamers, EA CEO John Riccitiello said consoles are no longer the dominant force in gaming. Up and coming devices like the iPad are: Consoles used to be 80% of the industry as recently as 2000. Consoles today are 40% of the game industry, so what do we really have? We have a new hardware platform and we're putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn't exist 18 months ago. Riccitiello does admit that consoles can offer better graphics, but he doesn't see those graphics benefits lasting forever. Sooner rather than later a mobile device like the iPad will be able able to offer the same graphics as the Xbox. And he believes graphics won't be the driving power in console adoption in the future. "I would argue that there's more to be provided in terms of value for the consumer in micro-transactions and social experiences and driving those better in cross-platform gameplay between a console and a PC and a handheld device and a social network than there is supercharging graphics." EA current has 32 games for the iPad with many more to come judging from Riccitiello's statements.
Sony says PS3 motion controller was codenamed 'Gem,' might or might not actually be called Gem
We never heard much more of the rumored Sphere codename for Sony's PlayStation 3 motion controller since it cropped up a few months ago, but it looks like we now finally have another name for it besides "PlayStation Motion Controller." That word initially came from EA's John Riccitiello, who let slip the name "Gem" during his talk at the UBS 37th Annual Global Media Conference when speaking about Sony's and Microsoft's new motion controllers. Just odd enough to work? Well, not so fast, as Sony would only go so far as to confirm to Kotaku that Gem was "an early code name for the product," adding that they "haven't announced final name at this point." Not exactly a full-on non-denial denial, to be sure, but it would seem that the door for Gem is at least open a tiny crack. [Thanks, Aaron]
EA CEO says digital gaming sales will overtake console numbers next year
Need more evidence that physical media is inching towards the door? Enter this Reuters conversation with Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. While the company -- the largest publisher of "interactive entertainment" (AKA video games) -- is hurting on sales during the awesome global recession currently underway, he thinks the future is digital. All digital. Riccitiello had this to say on the matter: "When people think of games, they traditionally think, in the U.S., of what sells on the Xbox, the PlayStation, and the Wii, and they forget about all these online services that are out there... if you add all that stuff up, it's almost half the industry now. It's about 40 to 45 percent. Next year it's likely to be the larger share of the total industry and it'll be bigger than the console games all put together." He went on to say that if EA's digital arm was a standalone company, "it would be like the darling of Wall Street." Of course, he's not just talking about XBLA and the App Store -- this is an all-encompassing view of the digital market, including casual gaming, Facebook apps, and WoW transactions as well. It may not be the kind of all-encompassing push needed, but we are hoping this sort of noise rattles the industry enough to mobilize smarter, more centralized methods of online distribution.
EA was wrong to ride PS3 & Xbox 360, CEO says
During yesterday's EA investor's meeting, fresh-faced CEO John Riccitiello lamented the company's unbalanced commitment to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Riccitiello spoke candidly about fiscal 2007, which he described as "the toughest year in the company's history," reports Next-Gen. "One of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they've shown with their wand controller and their Wii," observed Riccitiello, who admitted that by focusing on PS3 and Xbox, EA was on the "wrong horse". The pledge to Nintendo was a late bid.As of March, EA had the largest third-party market share on Wii, but profits were still stunted by relatively few titles and not a single original IP. Riccitiello did reaffirm a company-wide initiative to cease using Wii as a shovelware graveyard and to focus on new IPs; the same applies for all platforms supported by the company. With new franchises like Army of Two, Crysis, Playground, Rock Band -- oh, and "A Steven Spielberg Game: Blocks" -- EA hopes to get stagnant share prices bubbling upward again (shares were down yesterday). If only it was as simple as a wave of that magic wand...
