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

4:22 PM on 10.15.2008, Jim Sterling 23 comments

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

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.


Next page: More How many wolves have to die? stories




Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 10/15/2008 16:29
murder... what a way of life
Cartman's Avatar
Cartman at 10/15/2008 16:33
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
kepler at 10/15/2008 16:36
It was a shame that they killed Bullfrog. I loved their games, particularly the Dungeon Keeper franchise.
seamonkey420's Avatar
seamonkey420 at 10/15/2008 16:48
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
PhazonYoshi at 10/15/2008 16:48
you game killing bastards.
NihonTiger90's Avatar
NihonTiger90 at 10/15/2008 16:54
As long as they kill the crap, I'm good with it.
falinter's Avatar
falinter at 10/15/2008 17:04
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
Azereki at 10/15/2008 17:09
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
ArrestedDeveloper at 10/15/2008 17:15
Probably a good move canceling Tiberium.
John B's Avatar
John B at 10/15/2008 17:49
EA will never ... never ... be forgiven for what they did to Origin and Bullfrog.
Scroll's Avatar
Scroll at 10/15/2008 17:54
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
Tet at 10/15/2008 18:04
EA wouldn't know a good game if it bit them on the ass.
MotoRobo's Avatar
MotoRobo at 10/15/2008 18:12
"changing the concept" would mean a new game from scratch. It's funny he wants it know he cancels some games as if that makes the sports franchises less shitty. Blizzard has such a good record b/c they don't sell shit after working on it, they just count it as a loss. That's why their reputation is so much better than EA's and fans trust/like them so much better than EA.
parrothead's Avatar
parrothead at 10/15/2008 18:26
When are they going to kill facebreaker?
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar
TrailerParkJesus at 10/15/2008 18:50
Why do they even need to declare this? Shouldn't this be part of a company's philosophy from day one?
Leathersoup's Avatar
Leathersoup at 10/15/2008 21:08
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
Trevor McGee at 10/15/2008 21:54
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
exodus1925 at 10/16/2008 03:38
Good idea.
Crumpet Lips's Avatar
Crumpet Lips at 10/16/2008 05:44
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
Demtor at 10/16/2008 07:44
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
The Amazing Shenazin at 11/17/2008 03:21
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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