John Riccitiello, the outspoken and (doubtlessly) charming CEO of Electronic Arts, has been talking quality, and boasted of the "best title plan of any company in the industry." He also promised that the exploitation of "crappy" licenses is not the EA way. He means it this time!
"Frankly I think that a lot of the intellectual property we create are better than the licenses. That doesn't mean there isn't room for great licenses. There's room for both," stated the ever-frank CEO. "I think what you're noticing is that in years gone by we haven't had as many great, original intellectual properties. There's a lot more of that this year from EA and I think from here forward.
"I think what redeems our industry is quality, and I think we take a step back every time we take a license and exploit it with a crappy game. That's not what we're about."
Once again, Riccitiello touches on what many people say of EA on message boards around the Internet. He's done a lot to humanize EA over the past year, and with a strong E3 showing bolstered by titles like Dead Space and Rock Band 2, there's quite a few good things to be said for Electronic Arts lately. I'll wait for Riccitiello's words to be backed up with action, however, before I write EA any love letters.
EA is crazy.
On a side note: They are still releasing another Boogie game and I can't fanthom that not being crappy.
Yes, but they are still launching Madden games, aren't they?
If they can give me one FPS game that doesn't handle like I'm controlling a giant ass, I'll be happy.
I'll be more interested if they stop nickel and dimeing us with every game for "movies" or "cheats". What a load of BS.
I honestly believe that MOST of the movie-games could have been at least decent, some even good. Even though i enjoyed the lotr movie games, EA has absolutely butchered every other MG that has been released. They seem to think that just because people enjoyed the movie, then they will be willing to pay 30-40 pounds for a game that has little then better then Playstation one graphics and the gameplay of a used condom.
Just don't fuck up Mirror's Edge and Dead Space and we'll be sweet, ok EA? And don't piss on the PC versions either, you bastards.
THIS JUST IN: EA ARE LIARS.
Y0j1mb0 words are full of wisdom once again.
Hang on, didn't they just say at the last investor meeting they couldn't give a crap about quality as long as it sells?
I don't think that he fathoms all of the reasons why gamers still "hate" EA. EA has a hobby, maybe more of a fetish, with buying up smaller, independent game publishers, and think it's perfectly fine. Somehow EA doesn't realize that they're the only ones who want one massive game publisher. The gaming community has been buzzing around EA's bid to buy out Take 2, and pretty much everyone in the community has agreed they do NOT want it to go through.
EA also nickel and dimes gamers on "content" downloads, uses restrictive and anti-user DRM on PC games, created an anti-competitive environment when they made an exclusive license deal with the NFL, and have completely destroyed a list of great game makers and game franchises in the name of profit.
It's not just game quality that's given EA a bad name, it's EA's actions as a whole. EA's put out some good games, some good original games, but they're attitude as a whole still drags them down. If John Riccitiello wants to fix EA's image, then he's going to need to turn EA on it's head.
I won't be shocked when this is a lie.
I am in the middle of such a love affair with EA. I think we all need to step back and really look and see that it is the one game developer that is making leaps forward.
Games like Burnout: Paradise, which took the racing genre and shook it on it's head (not to mention the great free DLC), Mirror's Edge, a game that is set to not play it safe and win, and Fifa, which over the last year has kicked Pro Evo into touch and will do so sgain in the coming months.
Hats off to EA, fuck the haters.
Skate kicked ass.
As long as we see more stuff than just Mirror's Edge and Dead Space (and those don't turn into cash cows), I could get behind the "new" EA.
You know Jim
You've written /me/ love letters
does that count?
I, for one, welcome our new EA overlords.
Even if they're telling the truth and they up the quality, we have Activision now to shovel out the crap. (Ice Age over Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend? For serious?!)
Well there's no denying that EA seem to be at least trying and they do have some great new IPs coming but you what they say, promises are made to be broken...
I'll believe it when it happens.
EA has been turning a new leaf. Activision seems to be taking their old place.
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