Posts Tagged ‘john riccitiello’
Alien Dismemberment Coming To Wii
Of all the game genres out there the Wii has always had the most exciting potential for shooting games. The pointer capabilities of the controller make it very easy to mimic the addictive light-gun style action of arcade titles, so it’s no surprise that shooters are being created and ported to the Wii quite often. The success of the Resident Evil IV port guaranteed that.
EA in the face of some staggering losses has announced that they’re bringing scifi survival horror game Dead Space to the Wii. There aren’t any details yet beyond the fact that IGN reports the game will “make full use of the Wii remote”. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello has said that the company is going to be shifting its focus in light of the Wii’s incredible success: “Wii is the market leader — they’re getting half of our emphasis in terms of title count.” The Wii version will undoubtedly have to scale back on the graphics
EA CEO Talks Profits and Rock Band Rivalry
Some time back EA was known to push out crappy licensed games and whatnot, appearing to be a money-grabbing whore in the process. However, that has changed quite a lot recently, with the company investing in original IPs and actually good games. In fact, EA CEO John Riccitiello went on record to say that the company is cautious of prioritizing profit during game development now.
"Companies go through cycles where they are on the drug of profits," he said. Riccitiello noted that the easiest way to increase profit is to cut research and development costs: "That can be the beginning of an end."
"I’ve not only seen it, I’ve experienced it," he added. "You can seek to make profits, and then you’ll make the most profitable games you can–or you can seek to make great games that are profitable."
He also touched on the rivalry between EA and Activision music game franchises – Guitar Hero and Rock Band – noting that “rivalries are fun for people” and “invests meaning in something that is inherently sort of frivolous and fun.”