Pachter: Riccitiello is the right man to save EA

With all of the bombshells EA dropped last night, some might be questioning whether John Riccitiello is the right man to guide EA into a profitable future. Video game analyst Michael Pachter isn't one of those, however. Pachter thinks that's the kind of person that needs to be in charge at EA and describes Riccitiello as "a bright guy with a ton of experience" and being "sufficiently conscientious to lead the company."

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops from Pachter's end, however, as he criticizes Riccitiello's past strategies for EA and his "desire to balance between future growth and current success." The past strategies Pachter refers to are likely the company's gamble on new IPs, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. As for us, we like the more gutsy EA. But we also want Mass Effect 2 ...

Reader Comments (15)

Come on.

HE HIRED PETER MOORE!!!!!

WHAT MORE CAN YOU PEOPLE WANT???

Plus, since he was picked in 2007 to be the CEO, EA has seen probably their highest quality of released titles ever, even if they haven't been making the most money off of them.

I personally think he's done a great job, but the economy makes it seem like he sucks at.

Sunshine and lollipops came out of Pachter's end. Ha.

I'm actuallt surprised.

EA is doing an excellent job in terms of quality games lately. They are a completely different company.

Dead Space's demo was good but Mirror's Edge... ... ...it doesn't do anything for me other then meh.

It annoys me to no end when Activision just reskins guitar hero and Call of duty to death, without any effort, and make a massive profit, while EA is actually putting effort and resources into building awesome gaming experiences, and seeing little return. As far as I'm concerned, the new EA's games are good enough for EA to make a console and have enough good exclusives to make it as good as some consoles out now.

Considering that EA just reskins Madden every year and that Rock Band 2 was just a glorified patch (still an awesome game, but it's true), this argument doesn't hold much water.

As far as original IP's go, I'm a lot more excited for Prototype than I was for Mirror's Edge.

I think part of the lack of sales on the new IP's could be attributed to not having enough mainstream ads. I know there was a Dead Space commercial, but I only saw it once, and there was nothing for Mirror's Edge.

We take for granted, being hardcore enthusiasts, that people hear about games like these but without at least attempting to hit up that mid-range enthusiast (between Wii Fit moms and l33t h@xors) they're not going to hit the numbers that they need to to continue to make fresh new IP's like these.

We all know that Dead Space and Mirror's Edge are fantastic games, but Random Joe who loves Madden and also Halo might not have any idea. It's just another box to look past in a Gamestop.

Well Dead Space was great but it was released in 08 release mania with Fallout 3,Gears of war 2,Fable 2,Little Big Planet etc etc.

Other awesome games that were lost during this period were Resistance 2 and Banjo Kazooie. Resistance 2 thanks to Sony retarded marketing department and Banjo Kazooie because people fear what they don't understand also because the public for that game were Rare loyal fanbase, anyone with an I.Q higher than 120, Anyone who happens to like engineering or the impossible machine and people who always wanted to pwn n00bs using a killdozer.

About Mirrors Edge it always gave the Assassins Creed vibe. A experimental game that is pretty much an awesome tech demo for greater things to come but the difference is that Mirrors Edge is fun and doesn’t have Assassin’s creed attitude of “Hey look at me I think I’m so awesome I need a sequel to continue the story I was perfectly able to explain in the first game”

(Okay maybe not but the forced cliffhanger and reveling the plot twist in the first level killed everything interesting about AC )

Also the reviews for Mirrors Edge didn’t helped not to mention that with that in mid only a few people would drop a 100$ for a brief game. I mean I’m still waiting for Mirrors Edge to reach a healthy 60$ here.

I rushed my comment there are a lotof mistakes there I know.
*Didn't Help etc etc.

Dead Space is really good and as far survival horror games the gameplay was very well designed in other words the gameplay was awesome but the story needs some work and there are so inconsistencies but is really recommendable.
9/10 from my part.

Riccitiello is the moron who complained about game companies just pumping out sequel after sequel, and Pachter is the moron who said WoW would fizzle out after a year and GTA 3 wouldn't sell more than 400K units.

As a shareholder, I love Riccitiello. I think he's a great person to lead the company. Yep, the economy sucks. Not his fault. And no one could imagine how much success Petz type franchises would have. Stuff like Rock Band and Dead Space have been a great start to expanding the franchise base. More of that is what we need.

EA has sworn to be 50% Wii next year (50 titles, 125 SKUs of titles, thus 25 games, though how many exclusives that comes down to is unknown), and the Rock Band franchise has great room to grow, it's merely the case of getting more artist support, and then getting those artists out there to pitch it, like Slash's famous association with Guitar Hero III

The only room for growth in their Sports franchises is through Wii, pretty much, but other new IPs of yesteryear have great room to grow (Mass Effect, Boom Blox, and Dead Space apparently)

Since he has taken over.. he has changed the face of EA (in many ways) at least in my eyes. I think that is a good sign.

I didn't realize EA needed saving?
Usually when you type "Profitable company" in Wikipedia you get redirected to EA's page.

Pachter: Riccitiello is the right man to save EA

Reader Comments (15)

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 2:53PM OMGOMG said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 2:55PM Ricky Bango said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 2:59PM FernandoRocker said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 3:06PM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Feb 4th 2009 3:48PM False said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 3:13PM Jerk Face said

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Posted: Feb 4th 2009 4:17PM ScottG13 said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 4:34PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 5:19PM Deck said

Posted: Feb 4th 2009 7:22PM (Unverified) said

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