News Riccitiello: quality of EA games up "sharply"

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/29/riccitiello-quality-of-ea-games-up-sharply/1

John Riccitiello, CEO of EA, is sure that the quality of EA games has improved massively since he took over.

 

Not that he's biased or anything

 

I think EA have definitely improved. I don't mind them as a publisher anymore where I used to hate on them. Well done to the new leadership.

 

Can't say I ever had a pickle with them but then again sports games hardly caught my interest.

Let's just hope they keep up their support of PC gaming.

 

Not difficult: when you're at the bottom, the only way is up

It's still going to take quite a while for EA to get a good reputation, though. And while they do have some good titles in their lineup, they still do a helluva lot of sequels, especially under the EA Sports brand.

 

I was gonna say, didn't they buy a hell of a lot of developers since he came along?

 

It sounds like he has the right idea, much as it has done since he got in, though I'm not quite ready to hand them respect yet, especially with things like the mass effect/spore/securom fiasco lately. I do recognize that since we're looking at 2-3 (or more) years for a decent game it could still take some time for his changes to really shine through though.

 

I'd have to agree with him on that point, at least with the games listed

 

I think the other thing in his favour is, he can at least talk.

 

"Riccitiello believes that, while EA used to have a reputation for rushed games and endless sequels or NFL licenses, that has changed since he took over thanks to games like Spore, Battlefield: Bad Company, Mercenaries 2, Crysis and the latest Command and Conquer games."

Aren't all of those, save Spore, under the 'endless sequels' banner?
I guess he has a point though, the overall quality of ea games seems to have improved, even if theyre still lacking in original titles.

 

Well, Crysis has yet to have any sequel released... And a second Mercernaries hardly gives it "endless sequels" status. I agree on Battlefield and C&C though.

 

I am still pissed at EA over the westwood buyout, but oh well, que cera, cera. I will admit though that they have gotten better since about 2years ago

 

While Battlefield may have alot of sequels, the new one, Bad Company, is unique enough to warrant notice without unnecessarily being swept under the rug of "Endless Sequel".

 

John Riccitiello is so full of garbage it isn't funny (and I am a fan of EA games). NCAA Football 09 was just released on July 15th and it is a complete and total mess. Patch one is supposed to be out this week and patch two which will allow the game to play without the game breaking glitches won't be released until Sept (approx).

Let's see, there is a roster edit glitch (patch 1). The sliders are broken, the defensive AI is broken, special teams AI is broken and that is just to name a few of the bigger problems (patch 2). This game was released unfinished and full of problems. It is an insult to gamers to read an article like this in which EA claims they are improving quality when in fact I think their quality is getting worse. Sounds like a PR statement to try to stop the bleeding after the mess that NCAA Football 09 is.

 

You know for the first time in a long time I find myself actually eagerly awaiting not one but two EA games (Spore and Dead Space), I'm still not sure if I can trust them yet but I'm at least slightly more interested.

I don't think I'll ever be a fan of any EA sports games though, Madden was always the weaker football game IMHO before it became the ONLY football game.

 

Greetings!

EA has gotten worse with the limited activations DRM.
Lost a sale of Mass Effect so far.