EA - John Riccitielo Interview @ Mercury News

magerette

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California news site Mercury News does a Q & A session with EA's CEO John Riccitiello mostly on the present console goals of the company but also on his role and accomplishments there :
Q You've been in place for more than a year now, during which you've made a number of splashy moves. How would you assess the state of EA and where you go from here?
A Everything that I've been doing has been designed with (this) in mind: I want EA to be the best place for creative guys in our industry to work, and I want us to have the highest quality, most innovative games. A lot of people in our industry get stuck thinking that their job is to manage a lot of business process, and somehow the games happen down in the trenches. I'm trying to actually get it shifted, so people understand that the most important thing in our company is where the programming, the art direction, the game design and production takes place. Ultimately, if we do that, we'll make the best games. If we make the best games, they'll sell really well, and we'll be really profitable.

Our game quality and level of innovation is up sharply when you look at recently released titles and then you look at what's on the road map. We've turned the corner on that issue, and I'm very proud of that.
More information.
 
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Well, being as how they bought Bioware/Pandemic, there's been a lot of controversy over how they'll run it, etc, thought Riccitiello's little jaunt into PR philosophy might give an idea on how Bioware works in future, and thus how our rpgs from them turn out. But that's just my logic. This isn't anything earth shattering--it's a Monday out there. :)
 
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Well, EA is the current owner of BioWare, so it certainly affects us.

I can't stand EA myself, but I have to admit that he's right about one thing - the overall quality of their games has improved somewhat. However, it takes more than that to convince me that EA has actually changed.
 
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No - it is all numbers and consoles ...

Which kind of says something all by itself, even if it's bit obvious anyway--that is, PC exclusive games from Bioware are probably going the way of the dinosaurs.
 
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Which kind of says something all by itself, even it's bit obvious anyway?that is, PC exclusive games from Bioware are probably going the way of the dinosaurs.

If they found that consoles games give better money, of course they will do it.

Is nothing new, console games sell well.

In other hand, pc are a headache for give support, only europe developer (especially germans) are the ones making rpg to the pc. If in the future they find that console sell better, then expect gothic 4 be dumped as oblivion, or divinine divinity 2 be like fallout 3 :D.
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Well, EA is the current owner of BioWare, so it certainly affects us.

I can't stand EA myself, but I have to admit that he's right about one thing - the overall quality of their games has improved somewhat. However, it takes more than that to convince me that EA has actually changed.


The games did improve and they are actually supporting and creating new IPs (Mirrors Edge).

What didn't improve is their game support (Kane's Wrath, really bad support).
 
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In other hand, pc are a headache for give support, only europe developer (especially germans) are the ones making rpg to the pc. If in the future they find that console sell better, then expect gothic 4 be dumped as oblivion, or divinine divinity 2 be like fallout 3 :D.

Multi-platform is the standard even in Germany nowadays. G4, Sacred 2, Divinity 2, Grotesque are all confirmed multi-platform. PB only answers such questions with things like " Our publisher hasn´t announced anything yet.", which doesn´t exactly sound like a "no". A console Drakensang is in the works I think and the 3rd dtp RPG, Venetica, is also no PC exclusive, IIRC.
 
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An XBOX port is confirmed, but still far into the future.

But at least this game was maded with pc in mind, i am sure the drakesang version for console will be dumbed like all console games i ever see.
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Multi-platform is the standard even in Germany nowadays. G4, Sacred 2, Divinity 2, Grotesque are all confirmed multi-platform.
I honestly don't mind multi-platform released ... especially with relatively short gaps like KotOR or Mass Effect, or simul-releases like Oblivion. What bugs me is stuff like Deus Ex: Invisible War or Shovelware like Halo 2 ...
 
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i am sure the drakesang version for console will be dumbed like all console games i ever see.

In the interview I have this from Bernd Beyreuther of Radon Labs stated that the controls will be changed; but apart from that, there was no mention of "dumbing it down".

Otherwise I'd agree.
 
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