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EA’s CEO John Riccitiello has stepped down, so, of course, the fact that he’s got a difficult-to-spell name, combined with the general level of dislike EA has earned in the wake of SimCity‘s disastrous launch, means that jokers the world over have been quick to hop on the joke train and joke it up with their jokes.
Here are some of the best yuks from Twitter.
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Arghh. Every time I see that photo of him I have an urge to hide my children — which is pretty weird because I don’t have kids…
Look, to be fair to John Riccitiello, he did do a lot of good as his time as CEO of EA. Sure there are questionable directions he took the company in but at the same he did bring EA away from the developer crushing beast it was to a much more open company.
I’m sorry but it’s not as if one single man no matter his position in a company the size of EA can bring it down. I very much doubt he walked into game Studios and said you know what, make an ending that will piss off the fans and release the game early and incomplete.
EA has a bunch of people trying to analyse what we want and a bunch of people telling us what we want. For example EA think we want microtransactions in every $100 (AUD) game, because it works on free games for smartphones. You know the old saying about too many cooks?
You’ve got shareholders complaining about a share price that is a quarter of what it used to be and blaming anything but poor quality, and undercooked games for the problem. The Shareholders are so hungry for a hit there getting games out the door so fast they seem to be sabotaging themselves.
Look at SimCity, do you really think Maxis wanted to release a buggy game that is panned for it’s crappy release day woes and stupid AI? Do you think people just went who gives a proverbial if the fans hate the game we put the last 2-3 years of our lives into?
There is something very wrong with EA as a company, and I don’t see one CEO leaving fixing this mess. I do miss the days of Skate or Die, Road Rash and the Strike games when EA was one of my favourite companies for games. I don’t expect to see a new Mutant League Football, but it would make an Awesome DLC for Madden right?
the idea is that by the ceo leaving the board will start to consider why they are performing so poorly and possibly change their business plan…but yeah its a poor management issue which is why people are so happy to be shot of him
Totally agree, I have also gone from Love to Hate over the year with them. Now I refuse to buy anything they produce – a sad state of affairs.
hey, hey… I thought it was good 🙂
and I’m sure there will be a few of those poor souls out there that don’t know about reddit 🙂
I’m not sure how I feel about this post… I understand it’s about levity, but at the end of the day some poor bastard still lost his job.
I think we can all agree John was asked to leave… at that level few people resign by choice.
He transitioned them to a digital ecosphere and probably put them in the best position they’ve been in in a long time. Project $10, despite being despised by most of us, brought EA a means of generating revenue in a market they’d already conceded. He shepherded Battlefield from a PC niche game to a genuine competitor to Call of Duty, and to further stir the pot, signed Respawn to a partners deal.
He did many good things for that company, and kept them afloat in a bad era… but consistent losses, or not meeting share targets are never going to engender job security.
Old Republic was an unmitigated blood bath, and being his pet project, became an albatross around his neck…
I honestly believe the most ‘evil’ thing he did was the manner in which he brought Bioware and Pandemic to EA… but this… this is Nelson Munts pointing and saying Ha Ha…
Though I know we’re not, I’d like to think we’re better than that.
He doesn’t give a shit. He probably got some typical CEO bonus of 400 trillion dollars anyway.
“He shepherded Battlefield from a PC niche game to a genuine competitor to Call of Duty”
Rubbish. DICE already had Bad Company 1 and 2 on console before EA came in and they did a damn decent job of it as well.
The CQ DLC for BF3 was nothing more than a cheap grab for the CoD playerbase that actually drove loyal Battlefield fans away from the franchise.
The initial cost to play online then double dipped by offering player bought servers (and removing 95% of the official servers) was another nail in the coffin.
Even now with End Game released and FIVE DLCs later, the game still has a lot of bugs and many of which completely lock up the Xbox with balance issues still plaguing the game.
‘Shepherded’ my backside buddy, EA has nearly completely destroyed the franchise and DICE in the console market for the atrocious effort that BF3 has been.
CoD is CoD and remains the top contender in the fast paced, action FPS genre. BF3 was simply trying to cash in badly on their market, screwing it up and creating a bastard child that double dipped on customer spending and compromised the franchise integrity.
Stop snorting the washing powder and get with the program fanboy!
Please please please be single, female and looking for a bloke! Bloody well said “You’re Delusional”
When a developer shuts down and designers lose their jobs, Kotaku and the rest of the liberal games media sit in a circle around a campfire hugging each other while crying and drinking ciders. But when a CEO loses his job, they joke about it.
Development houses are driven into the ground by publishing houses like EA with strict deadlines that compromise title integrity for profit.
This CEO is the lord over a domain that is all about shareholder profit at the expense to quality control and integrity of the final product that you pay for.
Lamentation of development houses bullied into releasing unfinished product and double/triple dipping on customer expense with ‘addons’ and ‘DLC’s that ‘fix’ issues deliberately left in product releases is justified.
Feeling bad for the schoolyard bully who enforced such measures (and is given a multimillion dollar thank you parting gift) is just Stockholm syndrome by an ignorant fanbase.
Wake up buddy, just ‘joking’ about this corporate EA scumbag in a suit is letting him get off very damn lightly indeed!
LOL…publishers are a double-edge sword. They initiate quality control, but fuel creativity when the market isn’t as convoluted as it is. Why is the industry so fractured? Because the mobile market is flooded with garbage games by smug developers spending millions of other people’s money on niche games with a spontaneous target market.
No one ever holds a gun to a developer’s head to make a game. If you work for EA, you make a game relative to that publisher’s target market. Don’t give me crap about how EA stops a developer from making a good game. There are doors all over the place if they’d rather make it on their own.
Yes, it’s a tough world, but companies like EA, as silly as its decisions can be, are needed to help control industry growth. If industry growth is controlled by the creatives, without any sense of quality control, you saturate the market, consumers lose confidence and eventually there is a crash.
Seriously, go read a book.
He’s a multi-millionaire. I’m sure he doesn’t like losing his job, but I’m sure his big mansion and fleet of cars will help with the pain somewhat.
I have seen a lot of people discussing this whole Riccitello resignation thing and it shocks me how many people are feeling sorry for this bloke, not only that but how many people blame demanding customers with unrealistic wants in regards to the products they purchase.
I always laughed at the suggestion that some people were just easily led sheep for the corporations to launder but I guess it’s true, sad days when people ridicule other people for expecting a quality product.
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