Wii’s Success Surprised EA

EA CEO John Riccitiello admitted yesterday that the Wii has surprised the company, and that more focus should have been put in developing games for the Wii, instead of focusing on the Xbox 360 and PS3. During an analyst conference call, Riccitiello said that the Fiscal year 2007 was the toughest ever, because of the transition to three new consoles.

“[This transition has been] harder because of the complexity, and harder because unfortunately, we bet a little bit on the wrong horse in focusing so much on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and to a lesser degree on the Wii. And let me assure you that almost all of us in the industry made the same judgment. So after so many transitions of guessing exactly right, we got this one a little bit wrong and we’re dealing with that now with strong investments on the Wii.”

He assured investors that they’re now investing in the Wii, and new IPs like Crysis, Army of Two, and the upcoming Steven Spielberg games. After the conference call, EA’s share dropped almost 2 percent.