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EA CEO: recession is a blessing, will force "riffraff"out of business

Posted Feb 22, 2009 at 6:52AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 Tags: Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello

EA CEO: recession is a blessing - Image 1

The employees who recently got axed from Electronic Arts probably won't agree with this one. EA CEO John Riccitiello made a rather unexpected comment when he spoke at the DICE Summit, saying that the recession is a "blessing" for the video game industry.

He explains that the recession will force "the riffraff" to go bankrupt, which means less poor quality games in the market. This will also allow developer who "act decisively" to have a more secure future. "Junk is hard to compete with," he says. But he was also quick to add that "IÂ’m not pro-recession, but to quote Rahm Emanuel: never waste a crisis."

I'll have to say I agree with him. And disturbed that I do. Of course, his argument assumes that that every company that survives the recession will be the ones that make the quality games. EA itself recently cut 11% of its employees, which Riccitiello described as trimming "the so-called fat," making EA "stronger and leaner."

Via Wired

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How hard should I start laughing here? Mirror's Edge was probably the ONLY original game internally developed by EA. Game bombed staff fired. Mr wise ass, what EA will do in a recession is to stop betting on projects they are not sure they will sell and keep doing business as usual ie one FIFA game after another. So if this is your so called quality gaming then I suppose you GO TO HELL.

The average gamer may not be a rocket scientist, but we are definitely not kettle either.

(other companies on the other hand are adopting the smaller is bigger strategy so we will see quality games being beaten in 2 afternoons)

R

# EDIT (...) — Ryosuke 2009-02-22 11:00

"but we are definitely not kettle either"

sorry that was cattle, you know, the type of animal that does whatever it is told.

R

# ... — cory1492 2009-02-22 11:08

What's more likely to happen is companies that are actually dedicated to bringing a good game with original or established IP/trademarks, and are taking their time doing it _right_ will see their shares fall during a recession, allowing the likes of EA to buy them out and harvest any IP popularity until they decide to fire folks because the game they forced out the door far too early doesn't sell well because it's unfinished crap (compared to the idea/vision that started the project at any rate.)

I don't see too many shovelware companies going bankrupt, where they have only to sell like 3 copies of the retail product to unsuspecting schmoes (or cattle who believe commercials and media hype lines, if you will) to break even.

# ^ — sony_player 2009-02-22 11:13

I think sheep would've been more appropriate. but come on now, let's be realistic, they make so many maddens and fifas because so many people buy them, that's just common sense. I've actually gained some respect for EA in the last year, they've had some stellar hits like Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Boom Blox, burnout, and my personal fave: Rock Band 2

# Oh EA... — skidz 2009-02-22 12:18

For a company that delivers 70% ***** overall, he he. They really are arrogant bastards.

# Man after my own heart — avatar76 2009-02-22 13:39

EA games lately are some of the most samey pedestrian cr4p ever.

In the mid 90s they were bleeding edge, but now they just regurtgitate boring Need For Speed games and the same sport games with a few new players every year. EA depress the heck out of me.

# and.... — hush404 2009-02-22 13:39

.... just when I started to respect EA a little bit.

# I disagree — Navani 2009-02-22 15:00

Sure, some devs will go under, but what about Ensemble? Free Radical? This basically says if you have the capital you will stay above water. Surrre it makes developers be more careful with their releases, but they shouldn't lump everything together. And a blessing? This is where people become statistics. 11% of their workforce was laid off, trimming the fat.. Most of that fat have families.

# Not true... — Antic 2009-02-22 15:22

I wish that were true and a company like South Peak would go down in flames. In reality though, they saw a revenue soar 307% this last season (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6204875.html?tag=result;title;0).

Then you have games like Cry On that get canceled.

# ^ — papajag 2009-02-22 17:56

Besides Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and Burnout I have to agree. They need to get rid of many of their games and improve their sports games. As long as Dead Space 2 won't suck I'll keep backin up EA. Once that's gone....

# If the crap companies are gunna die — BloodMachine 2009-02-23 02:36

Then EA is done for.

# omg EA!! — Hekynn 2009-02-23 03:37

Good ridden's to EA I hope they go bankrupt and let the studio's do what they want.

# ea — milo128 2009-02-23 09:13

did really good this year but they did not make rock band 2 i think they published it

# I have said this before... — PS3Boy 2009-02-23 14:03

EA is like the Walmart of videogame publishers, they have the money to buy out these studios and own great franchises. Whilst studios with great underrated games aren't getting the great exposure they deserve. EA, you greedy bastards...

# EDIT — PS3Boy 2009-02-23 14:08

excuse my over-usage of "great"s ... I hate EA for buying out Oddworld Inhabitants.

# LOL — grimmer190 2009-02-23 14:40

I can't see how EA's CEO would say this when his own company delivers *****ty games all the time. Sure, EA may have some awesome games, but overall it sucks. The only thing this recession will do is weed out not only the bad competitors, but also competitors with awesome ideas who honestly should be given a chance to publish their games. :(

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