IndustryGamers was mildly surprised today to hear that EA COO John Pleasants would be leaving the company to helm social gaming start-up Playdom. We were even more surprised when we found out that longtime EA veteran John Schappert was exiting Microsoft to rejoin EA and take Pleasants' role. EA remarked to us, “When we informed Mr. Pleasants of our decision, he elected to pursue another opportunity.” Sounds an awful lot like Pleasants got booted, doesn't it?
John Pleasants is quite excited about leading Playdom
We started our conversation with Pleasants by asking him what happened, but not too surprisingly he didn't want to get into corporate politics. “I don't think it's the right thing for me to get into a stew with you versus what Jeff [Brown] said. The important thing here is that anyone who knows my record, knows that I have been spending every ounce of energy I have trying to make EA an online services game and I've spent a lot of time building up social networking capability inside EA, whether it be with Rupture, our own internal efforts, managing Pogo, or bringing our mobile titles over to our online world. It's where I believe the future's going and I've been very vocal that I want to build and grow in that area. ... I will say that I think John Schappert's a great guy... and I think [his rejoining them] is a very good thing for EA,” he commented.
He continued, “I love EA, I think it's the right thing for EA and I think it's the right thing for me, and I think Playdom's a great company.”
Running a start-up like Playdom is obviously quite a change from working as the number two man at a giant company like EA, but Pleasants admitted to us, “I'm looking forward to that. I'm not saying anything bad about EA, but big companies are what they are... For me, Playdom is super exciting. We're very bullish that Playdom can be built into a very special company.”
Interestingly, Pleasants had just talked about how EA is looking to further invest in the social gaming space and given his close ties to EA and Playdom's momentum in the sector, it wouldn't surprise IndustryGamers if EA did work up a deal to either partner with or acquire Playdom at some point. We asked Pleasants about this possibility, to which he initially responded, “You're too good at asking these probing questions, but that's why you're good at what you do.” We certainly liked the sound of that.
His real answer followed: “First of all, I don't start at Playdom for a couple more weeks. I think Playdom is a fantastic, totally unusual company in that it's an angel-funded and self-funded growth company. That is very rare. It became profitable in its first four months of operation... Why? Because it makes great games, with a good strategy, a great team that knows how to acquire customers and get viral distribution of its products, monetize them higher than anyone else in the industry and hold onto them longer than other people. ... The second thing, because of that, is I think Playdom has a very bright future whether it partners with someone commercially, whether there is a merger someday... none of us know what opportunities will come Playdom's way. I will say that I don't think Playdom is going to rely on any of that... I don't think this is a company that says, 'Oh I have to go do a deal with EA or Activision.' It's not in that position; it's in a very self-determined position.”
He added, “It would be my orientation coming in as CEO to be very open to working with anyone in the industry in ways that could be helpful to Playdom. I think we're blessed by being in a growth sector right now... I'm sure there will be lots of partnerships and opportunities and we will embrace those conversations.”
Continue to page 2 to find out why Pleasants thinks online and social gaming is going to take over the world...
