"EA CEO John Riccitiello steps down, and you should be afraid"
So, I guess this, according to Ben Kuchera, means that EA is going to, somehow, get even more shitty now? I'm not doubting that will happen, mind you, aside from just having to bend my mind a bit to comprehend how it's even physically possible for EA to get much shittier than they already are. They're already spiraling down the toilet as it is.
On the other hand, by some miracle, if they get a new guy who is actually smart and realizes the true reasons for exactly why they have "shortcomings in [their] financial results this year", and comes in guns blazing, saying that all the shitty stuff they are doing now needs to die and that they need to try to return to some semblance of non-shittiness (assuming EA ever was in such a state to begin with, which I don't personally believe to have ever been the case), that would be awesome. I'm not going to bet any money on that actually happening, though, because it's far more likely that Mr. Kuchera is correct and this just means EA is going to go down the crapper even more.
The only potentially good thing about some new, even worse asshole coming in and defecating more horrid fecal matter all over everything in the name of profits is that hopefully maybe, just maybe, consumers will finally get a clue and realize that the sort of things that EA does is simply not in their best interests, and then buy (or, rather, not buy) accordingly. (Yeah, right, as if that will ever happen. *eyeroll*)
(EDIT)
Wow, this is like the Big Thing™ clogging up my "games" RSS folder right now.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-steps-down/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-has-stepped-down/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/18/as-simcity-fires-burn-john-riccitello-steps-down-as-ea-ceo/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-steps-down-citing-financial-results-but-is-simcity-the-real-issue/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/03/18/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ea-ceo/
I mean, wow, three frickin' Forbes articles about it in the span of about two hours or so. And that doesn't even count the sites I don't follow anymore like Kotaku and Joystiq and Desucktoid and the like. I'm sure they've all got articles about this as well.
Anyway, on other, related news, it's kind of funny that one of the free games they're giving away to people who were unfortunate enough to have bought the new SimCity game is, of all things, SimCity 4. Seriously, even if I didn't already have SimCity 4, I certainly wouldn't want to have bought the new piece of shit to get access to it. It's just amusing to me that they're giving away a far superior version of the same game in order to placate people who bought the newer, but vastly inferior and broken version. The thing is, though, I figure the people who were still willing to buy the new SimCity game (despite having plenty of warning ahead of time that it was going to be crap, and even if that crap had only been in the form of the DRM and not the game itself) would already own SimCity 4.
In any case, it's sad and frustrating, because this sort of bribery is indeed probably going to work wonders for them, actually, and will likely get a lot of people, perhaps even most people, who bought the broken new game to forget about the issue almost entirely. It worked for Sony, after all, for the most part.
(/EDIT)
On the other hand, by some miracle, if they get a new guy who is actually smart and realizes the true reasons for exactly why they have "shortcomings in [their] financial results this year", and comes in guns blazing, saying that all the shitty stuff they are doing now needs to die and that they need to try to return to some semblance of non-shittiness (assuming EA ever was in such a state to begin with, which I don't personally believe to have ever been the case), that would be awesome. I'm not going to bet any money on that actually happening, though, because it's far more likely that Mr. Kuchera is correct and this just means EA is going to go down the crapper even more.
The only potentially good thing about some new, even worse asshole coming in and defecating more horrid fecal matter all over everything in the name of profits is that hopefully maybe, just maybe, consumers will finally get a clue and realize that the sort of things that EA does is simply not in their best interests, and then buy (or, rather, not buy) accordingly. (Yeah, right, as if that will ever happen. *eyeroll*)
(EDIT)
Wow, this is like the Big Thing™ clogging up my "games" RSS folder right now.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-steps-down/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-has-stepped-down/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/18/as-simcity-fires-burn-john-riccitello-steps-down-as-ea-ceo/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-steps-down-citing-financial-results-but-is-simcity-the-real-issue/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/03/18/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ea-ceo/
I mean, wow, three frickin' Forbes articles about it in the span of about two hours or so. And that doesn't even count the sites I don't follow anymore like Kotaku and Joystiq and Desucktoid and the like. I'm sure they've all got articles about this as well.
Anyway, on other, related news, it's kind of funny that one of the free games they're giving away to people who were unfortunate enough to have bought the new SimCity game is, of all things, SimCity 4. Seriously, even if I didn't already have SimCity 4, I certainly wouldn't want to have bought the new piece of shit to get access to it. It's just amusing to me that they're giving away a far superior version of the same game in order to placate people who bought the newer, but vastly inferior and broken version. The thing is, though, I figure the people who were still willing to buy the new SimCity game (despite having plenty of warning ahead of time that it was going to be crap, and even if that crap had only been in the form of the DRM and not the game itself) would already own SimCity 4.
In any case, it's sad and frustrating, because this sort of bribery is indeed probably going to work wonders for them, actually, and will likely get a lot of people, perhaps even most people, who bought the broken new game to forget about the issue almost entirely. It worked for Sony, after all, for the most part.
(/EDIT)