EA says: games industry is boring people to death

by Jared Rea { Jul 9th 2007 at 6:00PM }

The Wall Street Journal is right on the money when they say that Electronic Arts became the world's largest publisher by creating sequel after sequel of familiar franchises. So it must have come as quite a shock when John Riccitiello, the recently (as of April) reinstated chief executive of EA, sat down and told them that the games industry is "boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."

Criticizing an industry that EA helped to mold, Riccitiello worries that the industry as a whole, including EA Games, creates too many games that lack innovation. He also urges publishers to experiment by looking beyond the typical $50-60 disc with 40-plus hours of play that "few players will ever finish."

The whipping post of the misguided, EA certainly has the portfolio to back up the tough talk. While they'll never stop the Madden mobile (and why should they?), titles like Boom Boom Rocket, MySims, Skate, Rock Band and Army of Two are fine examples of the direction Riccitiello speaks of.

Tags: eagames

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

loungemonkey @ Jul 9th 2007 6:03PM

EA has got to be one of the worst contributers to this by far.

They just tweak a few things and call it good for the year it seems on many of their games.

Ant @ Jul 9th 2007 6:03PM

the CEO must not know what his company does huh.

DckPump @ Jul 9th 2007 6:06PM

Family guy is what kills people of boredom. If that show(EA) was original(new IP's), maybe it would be more popular(more units sold).

jared @ Jul 9th 2007 6:12PM

In before the same old, incredibly ignorant, "damn the man" rhetoric from-

Damn. Too late. Seriously, folks. Stop with the "Evil Empire" business. It got old about five years ago when there actually was a reason to dislike them.

Ian Von Porter @ Jul 9th 2007 6:13PM

I havent bought an EA game in years.. im not interested in their sports franchises, so, theres really nothing for me. What else do they have.. nothing?

jared @ Jul 9th 2007 6:14PM

If you read the story instead of seeing "EA" and jumping to comment, you would have learned about five great original titles from them. Thanks for contributing!

loungemonkey @ Jul 9th 2007 6:18PM

Jared.

Five original titles....somewhat original titles. I mean innovation is a hard thing but seriously you cant say that these 5 titles save EA from any sort of ridicule they deserve for their ever constant rehashes.

copa @ Jul 9th 2007 6:27PM

Come on now, EA isn't honestly going to try and take credit for Rock Band.

They are operating in a pure distribution role, they had nothing to do with publishing this game or bringing it to market.

Joshua @ Jul 9th 2007 6:13PM

He's right about the never finishing games things, at least for me, but disagree that games are getting harder to play. It just depends on who you are. For me, the only games I have trouble controlling are extremely complex ones, like RTSs. Everything else is natural.

And about boring games, yeah, there are a lot of boring games out there, but hasn't it always been that way? Back in the 80s and 90s, it seems like every other games as a platformer, which quickly gets boring, especially considering they're all copying each other. Today, it seems the same thing is happening to other genres like FPSs.

The core of the industry's not really any different than it was in the past. We just have more people now who play games (and can complain about things), and as such have wider genres and products to choose from.

Vince @ Jul 9th 2007 6:14PM

Boogie. 'Nuff said.

waynski1457 @ Jul 9th 2007 6:15PM

40hrs a disc? is it just me or isnt that a rarity these days.... then again, i will admit that it's getting alot better in that department...

btw i love family guy! great pic!

DarrenJ @ Jul 9th 2007 6:22PM

"games that are harder and harder to play"

Which games are these? Game have gradually gotten easier, IMHO. Remember how difficult some of the NES and SNES games were?

"typical $50-60 disc with 40-plus hours of play"

The $50-60 is right on, but I think the 40+ is the exception. There are the RPGs, the GTAs, and the Zeldas, but there are more of the 10-12 hour games anymore. I don't think games that never end can really be figured into this (a.k.a. The Sims).

A @ Jul 9th 2007 6:39PM

so true. games have gotten easier and easier. and the more casual gamers enter the market, the easier it will get.

such a shame. the most difficult zelda was Zelda II. Now the console games more like an interactive movie (which is good) and about as challenging (which is bad).

Henry @ Jul 9th 2007 7:40PM

I dont think they mean harder in gameplay terms, just the fact that some games are so boring its hard to pick them up.

byrc @ Jul 9th 2007 6:19PM

He also urges publishers to experiment by looking beyond the typical $50-60 disc with 40-plus hours of play that "few players will ever finish."

What the hell is this statement. The only games that are 40 hours long are RPGs. Is he honestly saying the video game industry doesn't need RPGs. I agree that more originality is needed, but EA is guilty for this like many other developers.

Most games are 12-20 hours in length. Just look at all the next gen games. There are only a handful that are beyond 12 hours in length. Where is he coming from? Is he an idiot?

Exo @ Jul 9th 2007 6:19PM

If you actually read the article. EA isnt guilty at all of what he is saying. he sint talking about original ips or games, hes talkinga bout games that have storys that are too long or are to hard to play. And since EA's games artn particularly hard, and few even have storys at all

But I still wouldnt buy any EA games, They dont really make any thing im intrested in

Jose @ Jul 9th 2007 6:20PM

Geeze!

Not only did you end a sentence with a preposition, that same preposition closes out the entire post. I don't even care about the story's content, I'm offended.

blk_ballard @ Jul 9th 2007 6:24PM

Love the family guy pic! That was one of their funniest bits!

byrc @ Jul 9th 2007 6:57PM

GTA is a short game. It just has a bunch of useless shit that people do for no reason. You can easily finish GTA games in 12 hours.

horngreen @ Jul 9th 2007 6:35PM

I'm waiting for Madden 08! I hear the helmets are WAAAAY more shiny this year!

Adv2k1 @ Jul 9th 2007 6:27PM

EA has seriously impressed me and turned my views on them around with how they treated Wii. Even though I couldn't get into Madden 07 it was fresh and new, and 08, and Fifa and Mysims are really evidence they are trying new things.

Look at Sims on DS, while not perfect they haven't tried to do that kind of sims game in a while.

Evan @ Jul 9th 2007 6:30PM

I feel that games really are getting boring. There's far too much travelling in recent games. In the 80s and 90s there were almost always an enemy somewhere on screen! But now you often have to walk through several rooms between enemies. I can walk around in real life, I'm not entertained by walking around inside a game.

Shagittarius @ Jul 9th 2007 6:31PM

I remember when CEOs used to have the common sense to not pretend they knew anything about the industry.

Sidepocket @ Jul 9th 2007 8:14PM

I also remember when drooling fanboys like yourself also had the same common sense.

Joe P @ Jul 9th 2007 6:37PM

I agree that by and large the industry lacks innovation on the scale that it needs. The thing is, with such high developing costs designers would rather stick to the tried and true then take a risk and chance losing thousands and thousands of dollars. There has to be an easier and less expensive way for developers to try new ideas without risking massive financial damage should they fail.

Also, that is a wonderful picture.

Sidepocket @ Jul 9th 2007 8:14PM

It is called the Wii. ;D

Martez @ Jul 9th 2007 6:39PM

EA doesn't have to personally make an innovative game to encourage innovation. They can fund and publish innovative or original titles as well. And they've actually been doing that quite a bit. If you haven't realized that than you've just been looking the other way on purpose simply because it's EA, and that's pretty dumb. They've been putting a lot of money into new ventures like Boogie, Skate (while a skateboarding game isn't new, they are trying a very interesting new control scheme, and it probably wouldn't get as much attention if it didn't have EA's bucks behind it), and they're also putting a lot of weight behind Harmonix and Rock Band, which is cool of them.

EA is the new Ubisoft, and vice versa. And that makes me kinda sad :(

samfish @ Jul 9th 2007 6:48PM

Wow, this is kind of like the Pot telling the Kettle to fuck off and die or something..

Jon @ Jul 9th 2007 6:52PM

Pot...
Kettle...
Black...

Chainblast @ Jul 9th 2007 7:15PM

In other words, why spend an enormous amount of cash when you can rake in gold for a hell of a lot less. Right?

Rubang B @ Jul 9th 2007 7:38PM

I can't handle this! Why is EA saying and doing all these good things? First they make all these Wii-exclusive games with experimental (but solid) control schemes, and now they're telling the rest of the industry that they're getting stale! I mean, I know they're just hopping on the Wii's rocket train to Cashville, but still... my brain asplode!

zwarrior @ Jul 10th 2007 12:47AM

It's hard to detect, is this sarcasm? I hope so

h0mi @ Jul 9th 2007 7:38PM

"boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."

Lots of attention paid to that quote but no mention of this one?

"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."

Jonathan Tran @ Jul 9th 2007 8:43PM

Okay EA, I will be looking out for Madden 09 and Need for Speed: Drift Wars

Hey Apples @ Jul 9th 2007 10:17PM

Oh the irony.

It's like a chain smoker complaining that too many of his friends have lung cancer.

Similian @ Jul 10th 2007 9:24AM

Right ... nothing new since 2000 .... just sequels and boring sh*

*sigh*

Flipside @ Jul 10th 2007 10:36AM

I don't mind a game that is 'hard to play', as long as it isn't boring as well. Shooter games are all pretty much 'Same game, different background', and RPG's are too based to repetition.

Take games like X3, etc. It's a good little space trading game in it's own right, but it really could have done with a little bit more effort at viewing the game from the players' perspective, rather than the developers' one. I'm pretty sure the heart of the trade Engine in that game dates back to the original 'X - Beyond the Frontier'.

In part I blame the 'Magpie' attitude bought about by the fact that Graphics cards seem to be becoming more powerful far faster than the rest of the gaming tech (And, after all, there's only so much you can do with sound), things like the Playstation 3 and XBox seem to care more how pretty the graphics are than how good the game is. Even the Wii relies heavily on 'gimmicks', though, gameplay wise, it's a good attempt.

As long as people are attracted to shiny, companies will produce shiny.