Nintendo Wii Fanboy

EA's John Riccitiello doesn't like to keep things bottled up. Whether it's displeasure at how his gardener trimmed the bushes in his back yard or the change to the tried-and-true meatloaf recipe his wife enacted last night, if John's got something on his mind, odds are it's coming out of his mouth. And, for that, we love him.

Take, for example, a recent investor call he took part in. The EA CEO spilled the beans that The Godfather 2 would be releasing shortly after another big EA title, Left 4 Dead. This would mean the game is slated for late this year to early next year for release. We're wondering if that's even possible, to tell the truth.

We haven't really seen or heard much on the game, so we kind of have a hard time believing that it could release so soon. Also, with the Wii version of the game releasing later than other versions of the first title, we're wondering if EA will plan on doing that again with the sequel.

[Via X3F]

EA's John Riccitiello doesn't mind dishing out the straight talk. In an interview with Mercury News, the EA CEO freely admits that his company failed in projecting the top dog of this current generation of consoles, instead focusing development on Xbox 360 and PS3 titles early on.

"One thing that's different is we typically figured out who the market leader was going to be before the start of the cycle and bet with our development resources on that platform," he said. Riccitiello admitted that EA made a bad call, but says the company is now "catching up" and thinks they'll be "fine." He went on further to add that they've "got some incredibly innovative Wii titles" and "incredibly innovative DS titles coming. And so I think that issue's sort of behind us."

With EA being such a big supporter of the previous Xbox and PlayStation consoles, do they think they can gain similar market share on the Wii? Even with Nintendo's tradition of dominating their own console with first-party titles? "Yes," says Riccitiello. "Tomorrow? No. Can I make a big step in that direction this year? Yes. Can I continue to make steps in that pattern? Yes. Does Nintendo want us to do it? Yes. Does the platform set itself up for that to be possible? Yes. So, it requires focus."

With the All-Play brand, we'd say EA is moving in the right direction for capturing that segment. What else they have up their sleeve, we'll just have to wait and see.

Another day, another E3 complaint. Yesterday, Alain Corre of Ubisoft commented on the size and location of this year's E3, wanting it bigger and better. Today, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello joined the party, outright stating "I hate E3 like this." Hate is such an ugly word. Dislike?

Ubisoft's Laurent Detoc also jumped into the fray. Instead of taking a subtle approach, he laid it out straight and said "E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement." There is a debate on whether E3 should be a show for the world or an exclusive media-only event, and the difference between the two is massive. This year, only 5,000 media representatives attended, where in the past 60,000 eager gamers would cover the show floor.

With EA (and Ubisoft) having the resources to put on a bigger display than pretty much anyone in the world, it's no wonder they want as much room and as big an audience as physically possible. Again, what are your thoughts on this? Are you happy to be bombarded with booth babes explosive gaming news and excitement in May every year, or do you enjoy the lower-key, need-to-know approach of this year's event?

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

EA's John Riccitiello? Nothing fazes him. The man's as cool as a cucumber. Case in point: last week, GameDaily reported that EA's Boom Blox, a game that has received universal praise from critics, has sold just 60,000 units in North America since its launch in early May -- a figure that equates to 0.6% of Wii owners. "Ouch" doesn't begin to cover it.

Yet whereas such paltry figures would have had seen most CEOs teetering on the windowsill of their eleventh story offices, Riccitiello remains confident that Boom Blox is a slow-burner. Speaking during a session with investors, the EA bigwig argued that casual games have a "much flatter, much longer [sales] curve" compared to core titles, which can see "20 to 30 per cent" of their lifetime sales take place during the first week.

"Right now, Boom Blox has met our expectations internally based on the model that was put forward," announced Riccitiello. "Can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it just has to keep selling."

We just hope you're right, John, if only because Boom Blox desperately deserves to do well.