Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello says that while EA is working hard to improve the quality of its games, investors don’t particularly care about that.
“I don’t think the investors give a shit about our quality,” Riccitiello admitted during a lengthy interview with VentureBeat. “They care about our earnings per share. They wait for it to happen. We had three years where we didn’t make our expectations. If I were an investor, I would wait and see. That’s fine with me.”
Touching on the acquisitions of BioWare and Pandemic, he added, “We’ve got a massively multiplayer online game coming, which we haven’t announced. It could be very lucrative for us. We got a really positive reaction to Dragon Age. We’ve got games like Saboteur in the works. We’ve got Mass Effect 2 coming. Some of it is 2009 software. If you’re stuck on the fact that the stock is at $45, I can’t really help you.”
Riccitiello also expressed amusement at the industry’s near-obsession with EA’s ongoing efforts to acquire Take-Two Interactive, a story which has been largely static since it began. “There have basically been three moves and there have been 6000 articles on it. It’s sort of amusing,” he said. “I feel a little bit like those strobe light things were it looks like a guy is moving a lot. The flash goes off but the body doesn’t move. Every time a flash goes off, somebody writes a story on it. To be honest with you, the last time there was news was a couple months ago.”
VentureBeat’s full Q&A with EA chief John Riccitiello can be read here.
