John Riccitiello has just submitted his resignation as the CEO of Electronic Arts; his final day as chairman will be March 30th. While this might be good for EA, depending on who you ask, it’s definitely bad for us. I had just finally been able to spell Riccitiello without looking up, and will be sad to see him go because of this. Nevertheless, the EA Board is on the lookout for a new chairman as the company expects profits to be down yet again in the quarter set to end. In the wake of the resignation, Larry Probst issued a public statement.
“Our business is built on more than a dozen powerful, globally recognized brands. We are clear leaders in the fastest growing category in games – mobile – and we are positioned to lead on the next generation of consoles. Most importantly we have deep reserves of talent – new faces and industry veterans who form the core of EA’s leadership.”
The EA Board will look both internally and externally for Riccitiello’s replacement. The smart money might be on Peter Moore, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the company. Whoever the next CEO is, they’ll have their work cut out for them. EA isn’t just dealing with financial problems, the company is also suffering from a severe image problem as well. Game launch follies and a poor public perception of the methods EA is using to monetize games, are just a couple of things that have led to EA being voted as the Consumerist’s Most Evil Company in America poll in 2012.
