- The Guardian, Thursday 14 August 2008
Electronic Arts used to be the publisher that every gamer hated. Predictable, aggressive and mind-numbingly successful, the corporation was an affront to the grassroots ethic. But since John Riccitiello took over as chief executive last year, there have been radical changes. Immediately, he attacked the way the company's bought small and interesting developers, then assimilated them. EA now sees its studios as autonomous city-states, allowing them to retain creative freedom and even take the odd risk.
Paul Barnett, an outspoken creative director at Mythic - the EA-owned studio which is working on Warhammer Online, a competitor to World of Warcraft - says: "EA forgot how to make games. Riccitiello has been doing a strong job of trying to re-empower studios. In our case, EA empowered us with money, they empowered us with belief, then they left us alone."
Warhammer Online, an MMORPG based around city sieges, is a big, bloated, fascinating project envisioned by Mark Jacobs, one of the originators of the massively multiplayer genre. Against the might of WoW, it's a huge punt. EA also has forthcoming shooter, Battlefield Heroes, a free-to-download online multiplayer title which, like the most successful games in the Korean market, only charges players when they want to customise their onscreen characters.
EA studios was also responsible for four of the most interesting games at this year's E3 event: the sci-fi horror fest Dead Space; the multiplayer zombie blaster Left 4 Dead; the free-running adventure Mirror's Edge; and, of course Spore. These are all original IP, doing weird stuff with their respective genres. Even EA Sports is playing fast and lose with the rules - the studio's new president, former Xbox chief Peter Moore, has brought in a new casual gaming sub-label, All-Play, because the games were getting too complicated for normal folk.
Best of all, EA is just making odd decisions. Last week, the industry was asking, hey why isn't there a Dark Knight videogame? Well, EA has the rights and, rumour has it, was working on a tie-in but had put it on the back burner. Some say it was beset with delays, others that it wasn't very good so EA ditched it. Then, the company announced that Godfather II is in development, a sequel to its movie translation which was demolished by the critics. Wah? But?
When the industry's most conservative mega-corp is brimming with new ideas and eccentric resolutions, it is a good indicator of where the industry is right now. It says anything could happen. The rest of the world might be nose-diving into depression, but EA has gone mad and games are exciting. Forget everything else and rejoice.
