EA CEO calls videogames "boring".

Check this out http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070708/tc_nm/electronicarts_ceo_dc;_ylt=AsiZiPRKFDtEcF4pnvP0fsLq188F

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most video games are "boring" or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world's largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc.

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal in a story posted on its Web site on Sunday.

Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA's former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.

The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

The comments were made as the $30 billion video game industry prepares for its annual gathering, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Santa Monica, California. Anticipation is running high that cheaper hardware and a host of keenly awaited new games will fuel the strongest sales in years.

Why doesn't he apply this logic to his company?

They are just sugar coating the way they release crap all the time over and overBigDizz

Boring and too complicated? No wonder EA sucks. rocklegacy2

What an idiot.

Maybe the publisher should put himself in the developer's shoes and try to make a good game rather than just raking in all the money from their hard work.

[QUOTE="BigDizz"]They are just sugar coating the way they release crap all the time over and overNamelessPlayer

Boring and too complicated? No wonder EA sucks. rocklegacy2

Is it our fault that casuals simply SUCK at gaming?

If casuals can't take the heat, then stay the f*** away from gaming. Do that orthey should get themselvesa game forthier iPod or buy a Wii :lol:

Making games hardar and harder to play ? :lol:

Yeah right...

Is it our fault that casuals simply SUCK at gaming?

If casuals can't take the heat, then stay the f*** away from gaming. Do that orthey should get themselvesa game forthier iPod or buy a Wii :lol:

VERTIGO47

Tell that to Zelda.

Check this out http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070708/tc_nm/electronicarts_ceo_dc;_ylt=AsiZiPRKFDtEcF4pnvP0fsLq188F

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most video games are "boring" or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world's largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc.

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal in a story posted on its Web site on Sunday.

Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA's former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.

The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

The comments were made as the $30 billion video game industry prepares for its annual gathering, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Santa Monica, California. Anticipation is running high that cheaper hardware and a host of keenly awaited new games will fuel the strongest sales in years.

Aljosa23

YA MEAN LIKE EA SPORTS GAMES?! :o

Check this out http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070708/tc_nm/electronicarts_ceo_dc;_ylt=AsiZiPRKFDtEcF4pnvP0fsLq188F

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most video games are "boring" or too complicated, and game makers need to do more to appeal to casual players, according to the head of the world's largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc.

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal in a story posted on its Web site on Sunday.

Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA's former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.

The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

The comments were made as the $30 billion video game industry prepares for its annual gathering, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Santa Monica, California. Anticipation is running high that cheaper hardware and a host of keenly awaited new games will fuel the strongest sales in years.

Aljosa23

"There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

I dunno, like Madden maybe!!! LOL

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

Such blatant hypocrisy coming from the mouth of the EA CEO. Surely EA could never be found guilty of such a heinous crime.

You guys are the epitomy of rehash. There's no rehash without ea.

The IRONY in what this guy says is just TOO MUCH for my brain to handle.

Does this guy realize he is the CEO of EA GAMES. Or better known as REHASH CENTRAL.

that guy must have had a hangover.

I think what he was trying to say was that there are a lot of complicated games that are boring to play. If a game is boring, then that'll just make it harder and harder for me to beat because I have no will to go through it all. Rainbow Six Vegas was great, but the single was pretty redundant hence I had a hard time with it, but I would lay waste online. Gears of War was pretty damed hard, but it had a nice shallow action movie vibe to it, so I managed to get through it.

If Developers want their games to be played, then by god, make them fun and interesting. I can't even count the number of games I've played over the last five years but just didn't finish. It wasn't because they were painfully difficult, it was because I just didn't care to see where they were going with it. Another aspect of it is the cutscenes. Games like COD3 where they FORCE you to watch a damed cutscene before every level, even when you're in the middle of the level and save/quit; when you come back, you have to watch it again, and you can't press start through it. Crap like that will make me take it out within a couple of hours.

And i just feel I have to mention Black in all this, that peice of crap had the nerve to make the gamer watch OPENING CREDITS to a fuccing game, plus you couldn't press start to get through it and it was long and slow. I played that crap for 20 minutes before being too pissed at the cutscene aspect to continue playing it. Thank God Allah and Buddah that I borrowed it from a friend. EA, if we wanted to watch movies, we'd rent a fuccin movie.

I think the last fewtitleI finished were: Shadows of the Colosus, Call of Cthulhu, dark corners of the earth, Crackdown (it really was fun), Gears of War, and COD2. That was just in the past 10 months. In that time I've played at least 45 games and only a fraction of them were worth my time to beat them.

I think developers should try actually giving a complete gaming experience instead of relying on cutscenes, save points, and overused gameplay to make their games longer. That's one of the things I dug about Gears of War, i never felt as though it were too long and drawn out. It was the same feeling in Halo 1, never felt like they were jerking me around, and the flood were a pleasant surprise, it completely changed my playing style too.

Can someone list just a few of these complicated games the EA CEO is talking about.... Because I cannot think of any.. :| Old PC games where somewhat hard but they where actually fun.. Games of today seem to be too easy and dumbed down :|

I think this guy just got owned on the first boss of Ninja Gaiden Sigma then came to whine about it on the internet...

Complicated? Hell, if anything games are getting too damn simple and easy.jetthrovegas

That is true, some games are so easy even 7 year olds are smart enough to play it! (listen to Halo 2 online the whole time a buch of little kids are playing it)

the harder the game becomes the more enteraining it is. These people are completely clueless.

the harder the game becomes the more enteraining it is. These people are completely clueless.

HoldThePhone

It still has to be a fun game though like gears of war.. that game could of used a even harder differculty. It was too easy, even on insane.. and I'm not even that hardcore. No point in it being hard and having crappy gameplay.

All games should have a super easy and a super hard differculty to suit both kinds of players and all the inbetween differcultys ofcourse...

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"]

the harder the game becomes the more enteraining it is. These people are completely clueless.

Dahaka-UK

It still has to be a fun game though like gears of war.. that game could of used a even harder differculty. It was too easy, even on insane.. and I'm not even that hardcore. No point in it being hard and having crappy gameplay.

Gears of War is a prime example of a sugar coated piece of crap. open your eyes. 11 weapons total (counting sidearms and both grenades), 6-8 hour single player, and a multiplayer with 3 modes that completly render the cover system useless. GeOW doesn't deserve any praise except for the graphics that fooled everyone.

[QUOTE="Dahaka-UK"][QUOTE="HoldThePhone"]

the harder the game becomes the more enteraining it is. These people are completely clueless.

HoldThePhone

It still has to be a fun game though like gears of war.. that game could of used a even harder differculty. It was too easy, even on insane.. and I'm not even that hardcore. No point in it being hard and having crappy gameplay.

Gears of War is a prime example of a sugar coated piece of crap. open your eyes. 11 weapons total (counting sidearms and both grenades), 6-8 hour single player, and a multiplayer with 3 modes that completly render the cover system useless. GeOW doesn't deserve any praise except for the graphics that fooled everyone.

Yes it could of used more content and I don't think it was worth £40 but it was still a fun 8 hours... Too bad it was too easy or it would of lasted longer maybe..

Boring and too complicated? No wonder EA sucks. rocklegacy2

Fascinating replies from a bunch of fanboys.

Reading comprehension FTW. Did you miss that part where he just came back to EA, and now in the capacity of CEO, in April? What makes you think he isn't referring to his own company as part of a greater malaise in gaming. Perhaps you are all owning yourselves. LMAO.

Rinse & Repeat. I'd say that's pretty darn fair. A ton of same ole, same ole. Huge number of hyped sequels. Same problem Hollywood suffers from.

Boring & Complex. Yep. A lot are. Not too complex to learn for geek fanboys. Just too complex and boring for either casuals, or gamers with limited time. Most of you weren't even a twinkle in your parents eyes, let alone in diapers, when I first started playing video games. Guess what? I still like them, but I don't have the time to read a 50 page manual, decipher what 100 symbols mean, and spend hours just figuring out how to adequately play the game.

Newsflash: Gaming is just entertainment/recreation. It competes with all other forms of entertainment/recreation....therefore ease of learning/ease of entry is important.....Wii anyone? But it doesn't just apply to the very casual, but also the gamer with limited time.

Newsflash2: EA and all other gaming companies are trying to make money. They all want to widen the base of people playing video games...vis-a-vis competing with all other forms of entertainment.

Newsflash3: This guys comments are not directed at hardcore fanboy gamers.

Newsflash4: None of this guys comments are inconsistent with having good games, even good games for hardcore gamers. Intutitive controls anyone? Anyone like those? Anyone like the instant transport feature on Oblivion instead of having to ride yer horse everywhere, every time? Anyone like the way Oblivion kept track of your quests? Anyone hate the way the inventory system made you scroll through a billion items in Oblivion? Small examples of the difference between easy/intuitive and boring/mind numbing.

Fascinating replies from a bunch of fanboys.

Reading comprehension FTW. Did you miss that part where he just came back to EA, and now in the capacity of CEO, in April? What makes you think he isn't referring to his own company as part of a greater malaise in gaming. Perhaps you are all owning yourselves. LMAO.

Rinse & Repeat. I'd say that's pretty darn fair. A ton of same ole, same ole. Huge number of hyped sequels. Same problem Hollywood suffers from.

Boring & Complex. Yep. A lot are. Not too complex to learn for geek fanboys. Just too complex and boring for either casuals, or gamers with limited time. Most of you weren't even a twinkle in your parents eyes, let alone in diapers, when I first started playing video games. Guess what? I still like them, but I don't have the time to read a 50 page manual, decipher what 100 symbols mean, and spend hours just figuring out how to adequately play the game.

Newsflash: Gaming is just entertainment/recreation. It competes with all other forms of entertainment/recreation....therefore ease of learning/ease of entry is important.....Wii anyone? But it doesn't just apply to the very casual, but also the gamer with limited time.

Newsflash2: EA and all other gaming companies are trying to make money. They all want to widen the base of people playing video games...vis-a-vis competing with all other forms of entertainment.

Newsflash3: This guys comments are not directed at hardcore fanboy gamers.

Newsflash4: None of this guys comments are inconsistent with having good games, even good games for hardcore gamers. Intutitive controls anyone? Anyone like those? Anyone like the instant transport feature on Oblivion instead of having to ride yer horse everywhere, every time? Anyone like the way Oblivion kept track of your quests? Anyone hate the way the inventory system made you scroll through a billion items in Oblivion? Small examples of the difference between easy/intuitive and boring/mind numbing.

SUD123456

hell yeah, entertainment and recreation. Games are visual entertainment that have to compete with movies for the viewers, if a game isn't fun enough to keep my attention, then I'll gladly watch a 2 hour movie and save the 15 hours of my life I'd use on a game and work on my art instead. Also, hours of gameplay do not make a game good, a good 8 hours is sufficient to a monotinous 35.

Boring & Complex. Yep. A lot are. Not too complex to learn for geek fanboys. Just too complex and boring for either casuals, or gamers with limited time. Most of you weren't even a twinkle in your parents eyes, let alone in diapers, when I first started playing video games. Guess what? I still like them, but I don't have the time to read a 50 page manual, decipher what 100 symbols mean, and spend hours just figuring out how to adequately play the game.

SUD123456

I might be able to agree on the boring part...but complex? Where did that come from.. I mean, what game do I have to read a 50 page manual or decipher 100 symbols? Umm I'm clueless as to what games are complex these days... There are absoluty none.

The only one game I can think of that fits your description is the MYST series, I haven't played it but I've heard there are some pretty darn fustrating puzzles in those games. But other than that what else :|..

As for gamers with limited time, well thats what save point ares for :|, to come back and play another day. I'm sure it's not too hard to figure out how to save your game :|

Wii on the other hand is oversimplifieing games than they already are.. you don't want them too easy sheep otherwise you wouldn't need a brain at all :|