John Riccitiello Stepping Down As EA CEO

BY

John Riccitiello will step down from his position as a CEO of Electronic Arts on March 30. Larry Probst, the company’s CEO from 1991 to 2007, will take over leadership duties while EA begins the search for a new CEO.

“EA is an outstanding company with creative and talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the company’s CEO. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and after six years I feel it is the right time for me pass the baton and let new leadership take the company into its next phase of innovation and growth,” said Riccitiello in a statement. “My decision to leave EA is really all about my accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year. It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued to the Street, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. And for that, I am 100 percent accountable.”

“John has worked hard to lead the Company through challenging transitions in our industry, and was instrumental in driving our very significant growth in digital revenues,” added Probst. “EA’s strategy and future are rock solid. Our business is built on more than a dozen powerful, globally recognized brands. We are clear leaders in the fastest growing category in games — mobile — and we are positioned to lead on the next generation of consoles.”

BlackBerry CEO Says Apple Isn’t Innovating iPhone UI

BY

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is arguing that Apple isn’t innovating the UI of the iPhone fast enough, making the device outdated. At the same time, he admits that BlackBerry 10 owes iOS for its groundwork on touch devices.

“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market, they did a fantastic job with the user interface,” said Heins. “[But] the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate . . . you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”

In the realm of tablets, Heins was a little more generous. “Kudos to Apple, I think they really managed to own that space, so it doesn’t make sense for me to just take this head on,” he conceded. “I need to figure out, for my enterprise customers, for my consumers, for my BB10 audience, what can I do that provides them a mobile computing experience in the form factor of a tablet, which goes beyond just the puristic tablet experience.”

Source: SlashGear.com

Video Game Voters Network At Half Million Members

BY

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today announced that its Video Game Voters Network (VGVN) has reached 500,000 members. Established in 2006, the VGVN has doubled in size over the past three years, a time period that included the Supreme Court defeating a California law that made selling games with violent content to minors illegal.

“As the prevalence and influence of computer and video games in our society has grown, so too has the dedicated membership of VGVN,” said ESA senior VP of communications and industry affairs Rich Taylor. “These highly engaged members make their voices heard in government offices across the country, educating officials about video games’ positive impacts and advocating for policy issues affecting game creators and consumers.”

Pepsi Max & Jeff Gordon Present: ‘Test Drive’

BY

Jeff Gordon disguised himself as an unassuming man named “Mike” and took at car salesman for a ride . . . literally. Using a surreptitiously placed Pepsi Max can with a camera in it, the brief and chaotic test dive in a 2009 Chevy Camaro is captured in this inventive promotional video.

Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger – Reveal Trailer

BY

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger marks the return of the franchise to the Old West setting that was departed from in The Cartel. This time, you’ll be hunting down people from history, like notorious gunslingers Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and Jesse James in “the untold stories behind the legends.”

Calling All Gods!

BY

God of War: Ascension has arrived in North America and begins deploying across the globe the rest of this week. Fans world-wide are being called upon to show their love for the gods! To participate, you must:

  • Tweet using #GodofWar, all day, all night, all week, let the world know who owns this time!
  • Snap a photo with your copy of God of War: Ascension – on Instagram or Twitter, tag it #GodofWar, and tweet it to us @SonySantaMonica
  • Modify your Twitter and Facebook avatars with the images below. Let’s show the social-sphere our God of War pride!

 

 

 

Indie Developer Vlambeer Talks Mobile Game Pricing

BY

Vlambeer has a breakout hit on its hands with Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale Of Redemption and the developer says the $3 price-point was essential to its success. The developer advised indie developers against free-to-play, saying it affects game design.

“We do believe that developers shouldn’t be scared to charge $3 for a game,” Vlambeer said. “The problem is that at $0.99, you’ll need to sell endless amounts of copies to be able to survive as an indie developer. Most games don’t even get close to that.”

“A direct result of the whole race-to-the-bottom in prices is the prevalence of free-to-play on iOS – it seems to be a safer bet,” the developer added. “But since its almost impossible to do free-to-play in a non-evil way and without sacrificing the elegance of your game design, we’ll prefer to charge $3.”

Source: Reddit.com

Real Racing 3 Infographic On Success

BY

Real Racing 3 has become a huge success for Electronic Arts, so much so that they expect to push it as a platform for years to come. Most prominently, it’s the number one free app on the App Store in 90 countries, with downloads for the first week exceeding those of the first two titles combined.

“There’s no question that going freemium was the right way to go,” said Electronic Arts vice president of mobile and social Nick Earl. “The vocal minority lashed out at freemium. We respect them and understand, but the market has spoken. That’s just where things are going.”

Source: Cnet.com

Tags:

Maxis Details Online-Only Design For SimCity

BY

Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw recently wrote a blog post explaining why SimCity is an online-only experience. She laid out reasons for making sure the experience was consistent and up to date between players, that they’d have access to their cities anywhere with cloud saves and have social features that allow players to easily interact.

“Always-Connected is a big change from SimCities of the past,” wrote Bradshaw. “It didn’t come down as an order from corporate and it isn’t a clandestine strategy to control players. It’s fundamental to the vision we had for this SimCity. From the ground up, we designed this game with multiplayer in mind — using new technology to realize a vision of players connected in regions to create a SimCity that captured the dynamism of the world we live in; a global, ever-changing, social world.”

“So, could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes. But we rejected that idea because it didn’t fit with our vision,” she added. “We did not focus on the ‘single city in isolation’ that we have delivered in past SimCities. We recognize that there are fans — people who love the original SimCity — who want that. But we’re also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality. The SimCity we delivered captures the magic of its heritage but catches up with ever-improving technology.”

Source: EA.com