In an interview with GI.biz, the former CEO of EA, John Riccitiello, slams companies that just wish to profit from games. You know, those companies that see a popular game and just tweak something minor and release it as their own. Yeah, those guys.
The emphasis is ours. Does anybody else see a slight bit of irony there coming from someone who used to be the CEO of a company like EA?
Continuing on, Riccitiello praises games like BioShock Infinite from Ken Levine.
More of Riccitiello's words of wisdom (which are sometimes amusing for all the wrong reasons) can be read over at GI.biz.
"Let's be realistic. I'm going to be cynical for a minute. I find this terribly hilarious - you talked about game companies, things you write about on the website, these game companies who are going to create the next generation of new ideas, they're all about fun etc. And they're working on a Puzzles and Dragons rip-off, except they're going to change one of the colors to blue. I mean, wait a minute. Are you in this because you want to create something or does it look like the easiest way to make money is to take one of the top-ten games and tweak it?" he said.
"One of the reasons we're seeing a lot of stuff that looks alike and plays alike is because that's how a lot of stuff gets born. It gets funded that way," he continued. "I think we're going to start seeing a lot more differentiation as people get bored of seeing the same apps in the top 200. They're going to come at it and realize that if you don't make a fundamentally different product then it's very difficult to replace something that's up there with your own original design."
"One of the reasons we're seeing a lot of stuff that looks alike and plays alike is because that's how a lot of stuff gets born. It gets funded that way," he continued. "I think we're going to start seeing a lot more differentiation as people get bored of seeing the same apps in the top 200. They're going to come at it and realize that if you don't make a fundamentally different product then it's very difficult to replace something that's up there with your own original design."
The emphasis is ours. Does anybody else see a slight bit of irony there coming from someone who used to be the CEO of a company like EA?
Continuing on, Riccitiello praises games like BioShock Infinite from Ken Levine.
"Ken Levine and the world he built in Columbia is perhaps the most fully realized world ever created, in my view, in any medium since Lord Of The Rings. It is that deep and rich an interesting place. It rivals, as I say, some of the great creations of our time in any form," he said. "As a game, it's really not any different than the first BioShock game was; in fact, in some ways it's simpler... mechanically it wasn't that different. But part of what makes for great games is the concept behind it, and then sometimes what makes for great games is the mechanics. So frankly the difference between say Konami's soccer game and EA's soccer game is not the concept - the rules of soccer are pretty much laid down, it's about the craft. And the craft in AI or the 11 players on the field and the systems that are used to support it are superior in FIFA, which is why it's got a bigger market share."
More of Riccitiello's words of wisdom (which are sometimes amusing for all the wrong reasons) can be read over at GI.biz.
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