games  anime  |  toys
Destructoid is gaming news, community, videos, and sometimes love. Take the tour or jump in with Facebook:

 


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.


Continue: More How many wolves have to die? stories





prev next

22 comments | showing # 1 to 22

Person of Lordly Caliber's Avatar
Person of Lordly Caliber at 10/15/2008 16:22
So about that Mysims franchise...
Or did Facebreaker already fill in the slot for 2009?
Crunshii's Avatar
Crunshii at 10/15/2008 16:26
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
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.
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
prev next

Comment with Facebook





Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid





New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

Comments policy

Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?

Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!

 
New on Destructoid.TV play all videos

Loading
Loading Destructoid Videos




    Win this!
    Reminder: We're giving away six copies of Magnacarta 2!



    Dtoid Twitter    Got news?   tips@destructoid.com

    Reviews & Previews
    Mahjongg Artifacts 2 review
    Dragon Age: Origins review
    Lost Winds: The Winter of the Melodias review
    Osmos review
    Space Invaders Extreme 2 review
    Half-Minute Hero review
    JU-ON: The Grudge review
    Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble review
    Thexder Neo review
    Domino Rally review
    more reviews
    PS3's 256-player MAG
    Rooms The Main Building
    Skate 3
    Hudson's bringing back the Bonk
    James Cameron's Avatar
    Bomberman Battlefest
    Calling
    Bad Company 2's multiplayer
    Partying like it's 1959 in BioShock 2's multiplayer
    BioShock 2 through the eyes of Big Daddy
    more previews


    - The Dtoid Army is 49643 strong -

    Showing Cblogs with 3+ faps   show all

    Call for entries: do the wrong thing

    New to Dtoid? Read the survival guide




     Originals
    Jim Sterling: How to respond to a videogame review





















    More Destructoid Originals




     Popular now more
























    Destructoid's editorial lovefest is:
    Nick Chester
    Editor-in-Chief
    Jim Sterling
    Reviews Editor
    Dale North
    News Editor
    Hamza Aziz
    Community Manager
    Anthony Burch
    Features Editor
    Rey Gutierrez
    Video editor & director
    Niero
    Founder, publisher
    Letters to the editors
    tips@destructoid.com
    Associate Editors
    Ashley Davis Jonathan Holmes
    Brad Nicholson Jonathan Ross
    Brad Rice Jordan Devore
    Chad Concelmo Matthew Razak
    Colette Bennett Tom Fronczak
    Conrad Zimmerman Topher Cantler
    Dyson Samit Sarkar
    Contributors
    Adam Dork
    Ben Perlee
    Daniel Lingen
    Joseph Leray
    Joe Burling
    Mikey
    Will Maddock
    Stella Wong





     

     
      get involved

    register or login
    post a blog
    post a forum
    enter a contest
    contribute a news tip
    suggest a feature
    be a guest editor
    support

    new member's guide
    login assistance
    tech support
    report abuse
    email our editors
    read our dev blog
    nuclear crisis?
    keep in touch

    RSS feed
    Twitter
    Facebook
    Myspace
    Flickr
    Game nights
    Meetup+play online
    seriously

    about Destructoid
    advertising
    terms of use
    privacy policy
    jobs at MM
    buy our crap
    our network

    Tomopop
    Japanator
    Despingation?




    Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press
    living the dream since March 16, 2006