Earlier today, during the release of EA’s financial earnings report, EA CEO John Riccitiello stated that he believes the industry has changed significantly over the last few years, and that as a result, developers have to re-think the way they create their games. Industrygamers.com reports that Riccitiello told investors he considers the traditional development cycle to be a thing of the past, and that developers would have to be quick to adapt to avoid being left behind.
A more extensive quote of Riccitiello is included after the jump.
“Most of us recognise that the industry has radically changed and the pace of change has accelerated dramatically. Gone forever is the 4 to 5 year console cadence that gave developers ample time to invest and retool for the next big wave. Consider that just 18 months ago, there was no iPad, Google was just experimenting with Android and most big games were limited to a single revenue opportunity at launch. Consider that each of the major consoles now has a controller that encourages users to get off the couch and get into the action.
On smartphones and tablets like the iPhone and iPad, the top paid apps are all games. Recognize that the fastest-growing revenue streams for console, PC, smartphones and tablets are all digital, and that EA is partnering with its retail and platform partners to help jointly grow these digital revenue streams. While the game industry has fundamentally changed, games are reaching a far larger audience base than ever before.”
The earning reports indicate that EA has doubled its year-over-year profits. Recently, the company launched its own digital distribution platform, and acquired indie developer PopCap.
All EA needs now is a massively successful MMO to bring in the monthly millions. Just so happens they have one that might be doing that in ToR.
I can’t see that happening, and they are spending waaaaaay too much money on it.
Worse case scenario, Popcap games are no longer on Steam. As much as I don’t like Origin, I think EA will get the hint when sales start falling because of the new site.
Pretty sure they are going to see sales drop by not having BF3 on Steam. I really want BF3, but I only want to play it on PC, and I really don’t want to have another download service running on my system.
I mean, to run my copy of Bioshock 2 I have to run GFWL (which is a mess), to run my Stardock games I have to use Impulse (not getting any more games other than Stardock games off the service since Gamestop owns it now), and then there are a smattering of other services.
I might get Origin at some point… I mean on my new computer I don’t even have Impulse, which was the only one I had on my old computer so sometime I might install one.
But no, I think it is getting a bit out of hand…
I understand your point. See I will only get Origin if I absolutely have to, but at the moment I don’t need to.
EA is going to lose sales on a lot of their titles by having disagreements with Valve and their deals with Steam. It will be fun to watch how this whole things evlolves.