SimCity: Trainwreck Clusterfuck Edition

I really do not think Riccitello was the problem. When he first became CEO it marked a rather sudden positive shift in direction for the company, at least in terms of the quality of their output.

EDIT: Shit, and Larry Probst is taking over? Look out, Activision, we have a new shit-factory on the rise.

Yeah. That's the big thing--was this because he went 'too far' or 'not enough'? Or the debacles I mentioned?

Riccitello has not done a great job since he came back in 2007. If I was a shareholder I would happy today. As it is, I don't care. It wasn't microtransactions or the Mass Effect 3 ending that forced him out, he just didn't make the company richer.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I really do not think Riccitello was the problem. When he first became CEO it marked a rather sudden positive shift in direction for the company, at least in terms of the quality of their output.

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That output did not make the company money.

not really simcity related, but it's ea all the same

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013...ck-player-pcs/

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Yeah. That's the big thing--was this because he went 'too far' or 'not enough'? Or the debacles I mentioned?

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It's reportedly just over poor earnings, but I'd mostly attribute that to a shift in console generations. Everyone is experiencing that. But it wouldn't be the first time shareholders fail to understand the market's cycles.

The company hasn't really been doing that well earnings-wise for several years.

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

That output did not make the company money.

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I guarantee you that the Dead Space series has made a shitload more than the shitty James Bond games that team was making before. Battlefield has blown up a lot bigger, too. I think EA's standing relative to the rest of the industry has been a lot better under Riccitello's leadership, but we've just seen the industry become a higher risk, lower reward place.

Dead Space is better than Bond but they still dropped $200 million on TOR. That crap probably blew up their projections for a decade.

I agree that the company is more efficient than they used to be, and they generally release better products. Problem is, they're not making more money. I don't think it is cyclical. Maybe the issue is choices of funding projects. I doubt Probst will do much that makes gamers happy on that front.

But when the industry's profit margins have slimmed across the board, is it reasonable to hold him accountable to a reality that no longer exists?

TOR was definitely a mistake, the AAA MMO market is pretty toxic, but it wasn't really because anyone bungled anything.