'Anyone who could draw a guy with a gun with a crayon could get funded,' says CEO of pre-economic crisis EA
Outspoken EA boss John Riccitiello has boldly stated that his company had become too complacent with itself, adding that the worsening economic recession could be “a blessing in disguise” as it will force the entire industry to reform and “clear away the junk”.
“Junk is hard to compete with,” Riccitiello told the LA DICE Summit audience, Gamasutra reports.
"We did get fat in too many places. It seemed like anyone who could draw a guy with a gun with a crayon could get funded. At least for EA, we got a little too fat, and a little too reliant on where things were.
“I’m not pro-recession, but to quote Rahm Emanuel – never waste a crisis.”
EA announced earlier this month that it is stepping up its job cutting measures as part of its ongoing cost cutting drive.
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Wouldn't he be just a little less cheerful about seeing this crisis as an opportunity if it was his job on the line?
I mean: "It seemed like anyone who could draw a guy with a gun with a crayon could get funded."...really?
And is junk hard to compete with?
This all appears to be a damning admission that EA's quality control had gone to pieces, that they had precious little control over their studios and their output, that they were wasting shareholders' money and in short were a badly run company.
Well if so all that raises the question why is Mr. Riccitiello still in a job? It sounds like he's telling the world that he failed. So Mr. Riccitiello - will you resign? And if not how will you justify sacking anyone who did do their job?
This is EA's Gerald Ratner moment when he told the world his company's products were "C**p".
Shocking
Probably because he was brought in a relatively short while ago to fix EAs problems.
