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EA to 'kill' at least one game a year, forever photo

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has been a talkative boy today, and lately the silver-maned executive has been talking about game quality. According to Riccitiello, EA is prepared to shut down several in-development titles a year if they are not reaching certain standards. Kind of like how they killed Bullfrog, except with a reason this time.

"When something's not meeting expectations... you can course correct by giving it more time, more money, changing the concept or killing the game. If you're committed to quality, you take one of those paths. If you preclude any one of those paths, quality will suffer.

EA will kill a game or two a year. Forever."

Brutal stuff, but I imagine that EA's standards of quality are a little lower than some. In fact, Tiberium must have been really bad for EA to kill it off.

That said, it's a good idea to shut down a game if there's no chance of it ever being good. Sometimes a title is going to suck no matter how much you try and polish it. I dare say a fair few games over the years would have benefitted from being put out of their misery.


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22 comments | showing # 1 to 22

Person of Lordly Caliber's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:22
Person of Lordly Caliber
So about that Mysims franchise...
Or did Facebreaker already fill in the slot for 2009?
Crunshii's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:26
Crunshii
Jim that pic is epic to this title.

EA instead of killing game IP... why don't they sell the IP's and let other game companies try give them a shot instead of just killing the franchise.

and make money to boot.
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:29
Holyetheline
murder... what a way of life
Cartman's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:33
Cartman
This like a meat company selling poisoned, diseased meat for years, and then saying : " Don't worry everyone, if this meat doesn't meet our expectations, it's out of here. We know we killed a good deal of you with foreign meat diseases and such, but we are really going to start to look for the quality meat this time."
Sorry, any reason to bash EA and im over it like EA over EVERY GOD DAMN MOVIE GAME THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON, YOU KILLED SUPERMAN FOR ME YOU BASTARDS.
Okay, Im done.
kepler's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:36
kepler
It was a shame that they killed Bullfrog. I loved their games, particularly the Dungeon Keeper franchise.
seamonkey420's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:48
seamonkey420
too bad EA didn't own the Sonic franchise/ip.

now thats a franchise that just needs to die..

the first 2 versions on the Genesis were good but after that.. well, you know what i'm saying.
PhazonYoshi's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:48
PhazonYoshi
you game killing bastards.
NihonTiger90's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 16:54
NihonTiger90
As long as they kill the crap, I'm good with it.
falinter's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:04
falinter
It's too bad unfinished games are not tangible items that EA could throw into a real dumpster out back that I could sift through during the night and pick the tasty unfinished morsels that they thought weren't worth the time/money/effort.
Azereki's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:09
Azereki
Not all of the stuff EA publishes is crap, you make it sound like their standard of quality is horrible or something.
ArrestedDeveloper's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:15
ArrestedDeveloper
Probably a good move canceling Tiberium.
John B's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:49
John B
EA will never ... never ... be forgiven for what they did to Origin and Bullfrog.
Scroll's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 17:54
Scroll
It's actually nice to see EA refrain from releasing a title not up to standards.

Extremely shocking for EA but I really like the new direction, more resources for Dead space 2 please!
Tet's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 18:04
Tet
EA wouldn't know a good game if it bit them on the ass.
parrothead's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 18:26
parrothead
When are they going to kill facebreaker?
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 18:50
TrailerParkJesus
Why do they even need to declare this? Shouldn't this be part of a company's philosophy from day one?
Leathersoup's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 21:08
Leathersoup
I'm having a vision of the future. The year is 2020. EA is hyping up their single annual release. Madden.
Trevor McGee's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/15/2008 21:54
Trevor McGee
They already did it with Def Jam. The fuckers got greedy and didn't want to pay AKI to continue developing the games and went ahead and used one of their in house development teams and ruined the series for good. I hate the pricks for it too.
exodus1925's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 03:38
exodus1925
Good idea.
Crumpet Lips's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 05:44
Crumpet Lips
Wait Tiberium was canned? I totally forgot about that game.... oh well.

And wait a minute, EA are actually going to start canning projects that are shit before they actually hit our stores? My my, I really do not believe that. I'll wait until Sony and Microsoft make the XStation360 until I believe that shite.
Demtor's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/16/2008 07:44
Demtor
Is there a list of canceled EA titles? We should get one running, like Fox's TV programs that have been canned.
The Amazing Shenazin's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/17/2008 03:21
The Amazing Shenazin
I was never interested in Tiberium anyway, but if they DO cancel a game I care about I will be PISSED
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