When EA announced its recent restructuring with 1,500 layoffs and a renewed focus on core IP, many in the industry interpreted this to mean that the publisher's relatively new commitment to fostering brand new intellectual properties would be thrown out the window. Speaking to IndustryGamers today, EA chief executive John Riccitiello said that this just isn't true.
“Does this mean EA is backing away from investing in quality and innovation? Absolutely not. It's religion for me; I believe quality and innovation is what works," he stated.
He pointed out that certain rival publishers drive their franchises into the ground. He didn't name names, but this was most likely a shot at Activision Blizzard and their endless stream of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty games. Riccitiello recently criticized Infinity Ward for making the "same game" over and over.
He told us today, "I believe there are publishers out there that are milking franchises at their peril. I do think you can sort of stop innovating and do well while you coast for a couple of editions before a product starts to fall apart or a sector starts to fall apart. But I think we owe our customer – core or non-core – quality and innovation that really blows their minds every time we put a product out there. That's one of the reasons you see such high Metacritic scores from EA so consistently after we made the investment for it, and you'll continue to see new IP from us."
Riccitiello continued, stressing the importance of new, innovative IP: "And I would point out that we just launched Dragon Age, which has been one of the most successful games in the entire industry, and we're a few weeks away from launching Dante's Inferno, which is obviously a different take on a pretty incredibly interesting intellectual property. And don't forget Saboteur is out next week. You could argue this was put in place before our most recent adjustment, but I will tell you there is new IP in fiscal 2011 that we haven't announced yet, and there is a massive amount of innovation going in it. So this is not a reduction from where we've been; it's maintaining the track."
We'll have more from the interview soon.
Also see: Wii Is 'Confounding to People,' says EA's Riccitiello
