John Riccitiello, the recently appointed CEO at Electronics Arts, admitted that his company had gotten on “the wrong horse” when it decided earlier in the newest console war to focus more on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 rather than Nintendo’s new Wii console.
“[The latest console transition] was tough because we typically have two to three platforms and a five year period… One of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they’ve shown with their wand controller and their Wii. That got ahead of us a little more than our expectations.”
Riccitiello went on to call fiscal 2007 probably the toughest year in EA’s history, due to diminishing returns on 360 and PS3 support, the costs of shifting focus to the Wii, and the growing importance of online support in video games.
