In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, EA's chief executive, John Riccitiello, slammed its own company and other the top game makers in the industry as being "boring" and lacking in innovation.
We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play. [...] For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat. There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before.
Electronic Arts is largely known for releasing annual installments of their sports series such as Madden NFL and Tiger Woods golf, as well as franchises like The Sims and Harry potter, in many cases adding little more than just improved graphics. And while serialized games are a good strategy, game makers need to make sure that the later editions are more innovative, according to Riccitiello.
Riccitiello also issued a call to gaming companies to move beyond their traditional markets of gamers and appeal to the world's casual players. Back in June, the company announced a reorganization that included the formation of a new gaming group devoted to casual gamers, EA Casual Entertainment.
Looking at sales statistics, it would be difficult to conclude that the gaming industry is hurting, especially when it continues growing at an exponential rate and presently being worth somewhere in the region of $30 billion annually. However, that can largely be attributed to the relatively recent release of the latest generation of gaming consoles.