Fri, Jul 18, 2008 | 15:03 BST
Riccitiello: “I hate E3 like this”
Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, EA CEO John Riccitiello has slammed this year’s E3, saying he hates it in its current form.
“I hate E3 like this,” he said. “Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.”
As noted earlier in part two of our E3 winners and losers article today, the format of this year’s show has hasn’t exactly thrilled many in industry.
More through the link.
By Mike Bowden
11 
Posted in: E3 2008, EA
Tags: John Riccitiello
11 comments
#1
Spiral
18/07/08, 3:23 pm
So that’s ActiBlizzard, Ubisoft and EA. Who thinks it’s going to last another year?
#2
patlike
18/07/08, 3:37 pm
They need to make it more relevant. July is a pretty stupid time for it. May would be better, but they can’t go back to what it was.
Quite ironic that John’s asking for that, considering EA was one of the driving forces behind changing the show in the first place.
#3
TheDifficult3rdAlbum
18/07/08, 3:59 pm
Just curious – what’s the difference between having it in May and July? I mean, why would May be better?
#4
Blerk
18/07/08, 4:02 pm
It wouldn’t be right on top of Leipzig, for a start.
#5
patlike
18/07/08, 4:15 pm
D3A – May’s when retail starts making decisions about what to stock for Christmas. That’s why all the publishers have their own events in May now: they need to show the games to retailers. Leipzig works because it’s a big consumer event. Have a games trade event in July’s pointless – the “trade” saw everything months ago.
#6
Blerk
18/07/08, 4:17 pm
Wasn’t the plan to make E3 more consumer oriented when they changed it all? What happened to that idea?
#7
Quiiick
18/07/08, 4:40 pm
Wasn’t EA one of the most prominent companies to kill the old E3 in the first place ???
#8
patlike
18/07/08, 5:09 pm
No idea, Blerk, tbh. I think the primary objective was to get it back to being a pure trade event, hence the “meetings” format in Santa Monica last year. Everyone moaned about that, so they changed it to this. And now…
Quiiick – Yep, although I’m not sure if it was JR or Probst that did it.
#9
ecu
18/07/08, 5:17 pm
Why can’t they just go back to the way it used to be?
#10
Quiiick
18/07/08, 5:19 pm
@ patlike
As I recall it was Larry.
John was still engaged with this Bono-company, way back then …
#11
Quiiick
18/07/08, 5:23 pm
From a consumer-standpoint last year was much worse than this E3.
So, you may at least say it gets better each year.