Here’s something we all knew but probably never expected to hear from the lips of John Ricitiello. He says in an interview with MTV Games that games that rely solely on the game of their licensed counterparts are bad for business and damaging to the the industry’s credibility. I agree with that part, but I think EA is certainly guilty of squeezing every IP it has until it cries pennies so the whole discussion has a hollow ring to it.
I don’t actually believe EA is in the business of exploiting other people’s licenses with bad quality games. We’ve been there. Most of our competitors are there or have been there. That’s not what we do. We’re not really after that market.
Of course, he specifically means that he doesn’t think EA should come out with, say, a bad Dark Knight game knowing people will buy it anyway, but it’s dishonest not to include the scores of sequels, spinoffs, and revisions of extant games in that category. Sure, a bad Dark Knight game is bad, but is it really that much worse than Need For Speed: Another One or Madden 2009: Slightly Adjusted?