At least they admit it now. I don't know how forgiving their shareholders are going to be though.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31365/We-should-have-bet-on-Wii-admits-Riccitiello

We should have bet on Wii, admits Riccitiello

Tim Ingham Today, 3:22pm

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has admitted that the company put too much focus on PS3 and 360 at the beginning of the current console cycle – and largely ignored the potential of Wii.

However, Speaking to the San Jose Mercury News, Riccitiello said that his company had since become established on Nintendo consoles – and that, for the first time in history, the second and third placed consoles were still ‘meaningful’.

He said: “One thing that's different is we typically figured out who the market leader was going to be before the start of the cycle and bet with our development resources on that platform.

“We made the wrong call there [by betting on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360], which made this transition harder than it would otherwise be. But now we're catching up, and I think we're fine. We've got some incredibly innovative Wii titles, [and] incredibly innovative DS titles coming. And so I think that issue's sort of behind us.”

He added: “[What’s] unusual in this cycle is there's a second and third place that is meaningful, against which we can build a profitable business. That's a good and positive thing.”

Riccitiello also said he was hopeful of pushing EA’s market share on DS and Wii up to match its dominance on PS3 and 360.

He commented: “Can I make a big step in that direction this year? Yes. Can I continue to make steps in that pattern? Yes. Does Nintendo want us to do it? Yes. Does the platform set itself up for that to be possible? Yes. So, it requires focus.”

Not too surprising that he'd say this. He said it over a year ago as well, when he was first taking over.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6175764.html

Glad to see he hasn't changed his position since then, though.

more Sims ? and Sport Games ?

Or any REAL inovative and good game at all ?

very interesting, i can only hope the direction includes games of all sorts, and not just to one 'mass' crowd

At least they admit they made a mistake. Should spark a few more 'apologies'

PS3 and 360 fanboys should stop fighting each other and recognize that their consoles would be almost dead without each other.

If I was investing in EA the questions I would like to ask is:

How can you say that this is the only generation where the second and third place consoles are still meaningful? When you account for the difference in development costs there is currently (and probably always will be) far more risk involved in producing a HD game than there was to produce a Gamecube/XBox game or a N64 game.

How long can the HD consoles remain meaningful for? There is a significant risk (for the HD consoles) that the Wii will reach a tipping point (caused by increased third party support) where the Wii can pass 50% or 60% of total market share. Hypothetically speaking, can you really justify spending 2 to 4 times as much to develop a HD game if there is 1.5 (or more) Wii systems on the market for every HD console on the market?

Ah, good news: now all the people that had recently forgiven EA for existing can take up torch and pitchfork again because EA is admitting that the Wii is the way ahead.

^very true

This is only the begining more will follow suit.