Games are boring, says EA CEO

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 10 July 2007 02:52

Business IT - Technology

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," warns John Riccitiello, the recently appointed CEO of Electronic Arts.

In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal, Riccitiello expresses concern that EA and other companies have become too reliant on sequels that fail to deliver innovation.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he says. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

And Riccitiello should know: EA's catalogue is packed with sequels, whether they are annual releases of the various sports games such as the Madden NFL, Tiger Woods golf and FIFA football, or franchises like Need For Speed, The Sims, and Harry Potter.

He does see some grounds for optimism, pointing to games such as Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft, and Rock Band. It isn't that sequels are inherently bad, just that they need to be more innovative.

Riccitiello also suggests companies need to move beyond their traditional markets of gamers who are prepared to pay $US50 to $US60 on a game that might take 40 hours to play, especially if they want to attract casual players.

That, we assume, is a reference to the success of Nintendo's Wii, especially among demographics not generally considered to be big game players, as well as the popularity of the relatively simple yet low-cost games available for download from Xbox Live Arcade and similar sources.