[Amoo316]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

The discussion begins and ends here. The board members and shareholders really don't give a flying f* about SimCity and some server gaffes or Madden or NFL exclusivity - they care that the company has lost three-quarters of its value under his watch, and that they have consistently missed even conservative quarterly earnings guidances to The Street. I won't speculate as to how much of this is Rccitiello's fault, as no one (even in EA) knows the answer to that, but if you are driving the boat when it runs aground, you take the blame. My only concern is that the investors by-and-large think EA's problem is not moving more quickly/aggresively into mobile and social, and that's why their stock price is tanking...My suspicion is that that is not true, but I guess we'll see. Business groupthink is always chasing trends after they peak, and I fear we'll see EA dive further into mobile/social at the expense of console/PC because that's where the investors want the company to go. And they will more aggressively try to monetize their products (read: microtransactions galore) because The Street loves that sort of thing. Even as a longtime EA basher, I fear that Rccitiello leaving will lead EA further down a path gamers would rather not see them go (and neither will investors when they see what happens)....

I fear you're right, but I hope this was all a wake up call to EA. Back when EA got big, games were mostly for kids. They catered to kids and what kids wanted and what kids liked. There's a whole generation of us ~25+ that still game as adults and are/were some of EA's most loyal fans. This goes beyond just EA Sports, this is EA company wide. Everything they have put their hands on in recent memory (minus FIFA) they have run into the ground trying to cater to the teenagers of today.

The sooner they realize their games are played and loved by people of all ages and begin building games around multiple generations, the better-off they will be.