Riccitiello: Digital will overtake consoles next year

Gonna take a lot longer then one year.

It truely is sad that a big name like Riccitiello considers stupid little flash games the future. It really is taking the industry back 20 years. Just when video games were being considered a real form of media art to. Well done EA.

To be fair Gek, I think outragiously expensive and long dev cycles, huge marketing budgets, increased competion, intense online focus, and the alomost rampent reliance on DLC cash flows have done more damage to video games then flash games. I think that it is because of the things mentioned that so called casual and web based games are so appealing in the first place. I think that smaller bite sized games will be around for a long long time. And the idea that games are somehow a pinicale art form? thats crap. They are video games. The same as they have always been. Companies don’t make games to win artistic acolades. It a bizz, games are made to make money. Pretty simply put. The whole “art form” thing? thats just a way to market it(the bizz in general). Acti wants you to view MW2 that way. Infact the more you call it a piece of art, the more you tell your friends it is a piece of art, the more websites that refere to it as a piece of art, surly the more people will buy it. Right?

So i guess you also refuse to consider movie a form of art.

@OlderGamer

I think most developers would be insulted to be told by you that they’re only in it for the money. People like Kotick and Riccitello might be in it for the money, but the people who spend endless nights in front of their computers and sleeping under their desks are doing it because they love it.

As a gamer I am insulted by much of what does come out.

Look. The guy/gal that plays guiter and sings a song that they wrote in their basement – thats art. The guy/gal that just finnished their fourth unpublished book or their 100th poem – thats art. A person that is just staring their 200th painting – thats art. A couple of people cranking out their fith unpublished game on their personal Mac/PC – thats art.

Nearly anything your going to find at your local game store has far more to do with marketing and big bizz then it does art. The irony here, really, is that more of those flash games and web based games created by one, two or three people resemble art then do their mass marketed mainstream counter parts.
I am not saying that artist don’t also make games. Of course they do. But the industry as a whole has grown beyond that. And the peopl;e that are selling you the concept of video gaming as an revolutionary new art form are the very same people that are taking the art out of the forum. It has less to do with art and more to do with formulas. Thats why we are drowning in cookie cutter games. Endless sequels, shamless dlc ploys, and droves of Me Too games.
It is kind of like the old adage of when something goes comercial, it stops being art. Instead of holding dear and true to its artistic integrty that made it art to begin with, it looks for selling features, marketable bits.
You can have your own opion, no prob. But mine is that most modern day video games have very little to do with art.
Movies? Some do some don’t. They, like video games, are an entertainment medium. Someones view of what is art is their own personal spin. So milage may very.

Are we talking 40-45% of gaming or of revenue?

Cus tbh I don’t think many “casual gamers” who play Facebook games or whatever equivalent are all that interested in paying for the privilege.

I don’t think Flash games are something to be sneered at though, some of them are exceptionally well made. PopCap have some great Flash versions of their games and the Flash game EA commissioned to support Dragon Age Origins (Dragon Age Journeys) is massive fun.

“My words are solid”

my words come to pass!

I said it on edge online, I said it on games spot, I have siad it vidogamer and I have said it on meny sites.

this proves I am right and my critics are noobs.

“Look. The guy/gal that plays guiter and sings a song that they wrote in their basement – thats art. The guy/gal that just finnished their fourth unpublished book or their 100th poem – thats art. A person that is just staring their 200th painting – thats art. A couple of people cranking out their fith unpublished game on their personal Mac/PC – thats art.”

So as soon as something gets published to masses/is made for the masses it instantly stops being/isnt art? Oh come on, your being ridiculous.
And what happened to your stunning logic of ‘higher sales = better quality’? By that standard all this unpublished stuff must be crap.
Just like that you’re putting the context of something over its actual quality.

Shall be watching your revenue statements with interest EA… though I doubt it’ll come to pass.

ahahahahahahahahahahaha I laugh in the face of my crictics

this is where I state my must famus line of all time.

“I told you so”

ahahahhahahhahahahahah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8

look who id really smart and who are the noobs now

ahahahahaha

Haven’t MS said the same thing on several occasions?

all those people call me names should come fess up and kiss my feet lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXBE81FYZJ0&feature=related

Gek your nitpicking and trolling for a fight. Stop.

I am speaking in generalities.

Higher sales don’t always equal higher quality. I never said that. Those words are ones you have twisted. I have said that higher sales equal more of what gamers are looking for. For example if gears outsells LBP, it can be safly said that more gamers are intersted in the type of game that gears is instead of the type of game that LBP. It has little to do with quality, or art for that matter. However it is also true that a games quality and artisitc weight is judged individualy on a per person bases. I said that too, btw. So that while one game apeals to one person the same game may not apeal to another. Sales numbers are a great way to judge if a said game apeals to massive amounts of people. Quality, while subjective, is awhole nother animal.
I think that you also have to distinguesh between a game being published vs “Made for the masses”(as you called it). A game that goes for the typical 15-25 year old male demographic, is going to hold certian traits to be true. It is going to pattern itself after well known formulas. It is going to be violent, graphic, have sexual themes, and use foul language. Perhaps not all of those but you get the idea. It is going to be M-rated. It is probably going to be a shooter. And it isn’t likly going to stray too far from the gamers expectations. Is that art? I guess that depends on your view of art. In my opnion, no it is not. Your entitled to your own opinion.

this article has made my day I feel sooooo good

this link pretty much shows what I think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8

lol

I dont know what your happy about BDH, the type of games Riccitiello is on about are perfectly playable on Wii and PS3.
And as always you’re doing nothing more then taking opinion over fact. Remember Riccitiello’s so called opinion of consoles? Now remember EA’s actual financial report showing not only that they make more money off consoles but that console gaming is on the rise whilst their PC market is shrinking?

Yeah, Opinion Vs. Fact.

pc gaming will be fine, I mean look all them games

http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2009/

give it some time and we will have alot more cuting edge games soon agin. This time wirh out evil retailers, sony, micro soft and evil game devs that betray their fan base.

to all you haters I have the coolest link ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8

lol I am so dancing lol

I wonder how much of that 40-45% (I assume he means industry revenue) is accounted for by Cafe World cake decorations and FarmVille fertiliser. Can’t imagine Stardock is seeing much of it, for instance…

Oh by the way here is another ceo saying the same thing

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/29725/1092/

lol

I’d assume that 40-45% is the actual number of games rather then any form of revenue seeing as most of those types of games are actually free. Atleast they are for now, looks like they’re EA plan to slap a sub onto them.

On a sidenote EA recently raised the price of pretty much everything on BF Heroes apparently, so much so that just playing for points to get items like you could is near impossible now.

Hmm the BF Heroes price hike news is disturbing. Will check it out, thanks.

If you like to include Flash games then yes, digital is pretty huge, but in terms of standard retail games (and I’m talking locally) there’s no way in heck that they’re going to be overtaken by digital in Australia now or ever. Overseas on Steam they may represent value for money, here, digital content is not only a hassle but the most overpriced content you can find.

No thank you sir.