14 DAY TRIAL // Former Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello held a special panel about the state of the games industry nowadays and emphasized that titles needed to have variable pricing but also to be more prompt in delivering a fun experience in the form of a service.
EA under John Riccitiello underwent some big changes and its public image, for the most part, improved in different ways, even if it had some stumbles over the years.
After the departure, the executive became a specialized investor in the gaming industry and held a panel during the Gaming Insider Summit, which was attended by [a]listdaily.
Riccitiello's talk spanned three key areas where console and PC games can learn from mobile ones, starting off with delivering a service to users that withstands all sorts of challenges.
“More than anything, what the traditional game industry should learn from mobile is it's really about service,” Riccitiello said. “It's an ongoing business. You'd think we would have learned this some time ago, but I find it interesting that WoW and Sim City and GTA and Starcraft and many other games all fell over at launch when they put their service components together.”
What's more, the former EA boss also emphasized that variable pricing should be supported by all platforms, as asking fans to pay $60 or €60 for a game is a big insult to many of them.
“There's not been a console game with even half as many installs as Clash of Clans. Puzzle & Dragons has got more installs than any console game in history. Getting a larger audience through variable pricing is a really useful thing.”
Last of all, Riccitiello argued for simplicity and said that games nowadays should deliver a fun experience as fast as possible.
“It's incredibly rare for a new game from a traditional game company to be learnable without instruction in ten, fifteen or twenty seconds and get to the fun that quick.”
EA appointed as CEO Andrew Wilson, the former man in charge of the FIFA franchise.