EA CEO Wilson: "Avoid the distraction" of platforms, "they can't be your center"
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, himself an actual game developer, is now holding the reins of the fifth largest video games publisher. His message? Stop being 'distracted' by platforms and business models.
They have their place to be sure, but Wilson argues they"can't be your center." Great games "work no matter what platform you're on" or business model.
The industry is going through another flux as studios and gamers transition from Xbox 360 and PS3 to Xbox One and PS4, but great games are great games says Wilson.
"If the industry can avoid the distraction of platforms, of geographies, of business models, and really just focus on making great games for whatever their target audience is, for whatever that gamer-centric group of people is; then I think we'll be all right," he said. "These other distractions are not without merit and they're important, but they can't be your center."
"Great games work no matter what platform you're on or what business model that you're going with," Wilson continued. "If you can provide great entertainment, then you can really get down to that minute-to-minute interaction that's fun and enjoyable and feels like great value."
EA signed a major licensing deal with Disney for the Star Wars IP rights, and they're looking at the huge franchise and taking the approach Warner Brothers took with Batman, says Wilson.
"What Warner Bros. did with Batman was take the core roots of that IP and manifest that inside the walls of Gotham City and delivered an interactive experience that had real ties to what you would see in the films and what you had read in the comics, while having its own life because it could provide such deep and more immersive storylines," he said.
"When we look at the Star Wars properties that's how we're looking at it. We're not trying to build a game that replicates the storyline of any particular film." No quick tie-in projects then. DICE is currently developing Star Wars: Battlefront and BioWare is said to have another Star Wars project in the works alongside The Old Republic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, stop giving exclusivity and favouritism to one platform? Stop being worst company of the year?!
