GTA IV is gaming's Best Picture Oscar, says Riccitiello

Speaking at EA's Redwood Shores HQ, company CEO John Riccitiello has said that GTA will be the most successful game of this year and possibly the current generation of consoles.

The EA boss gave the prediction after claiming the title will prove his assertion that the best and brightest games will soon be seen on a level with the biggest movies in terms of the entertainment business.

"Our industry is passing through a phase where I believe the greatest games will be viewed by almost everybody as being as important as Best Picture at the Academy Awards," he said.

Riccitiello went on in a Financial Times interview, speaking of how he plans to bring Rockstar within the EA "city-state" studio structure and how his epic plan to change the way EA works from the ground up was borne from managing indie developers.

"I spent three years outside EA managing independent developers, while EA ran a global monolithic studio organisation," he said. "I thought central command and control homogenisation had run its course."

Riccitiello's plan for EA isn't just about studio structure, though. Other ways of making money are getting a look in too.

"Above all, I'm trying to bring great quality and innovation back . . . I'm also trying to drive us towards a variety of new business models, whether it be subscription or micro-transactions, or advertising-based."