Riccitiello the reason EA stopped 'kicking ass', anonymous exec says - rumour

An anonymous source said to be a former EA executive has shared a biting assessment of CEO John Riccitiello, who announced his resignation yesterday.

"Riccitiello lost money every single year he was at EA while I was there, (and probably every other year he was there too). He just didn't know anything about games, or rather, interactive entertainment in general," the purported former EA staffer told GamesIndustry.

"He's much more obnoxious than impressive."

The source said he suspects interim and former CEO Larry Probst's 'heart isn't in it', and said that EA has "a huge staff of unproductive senior execs that have 'retired in place'" which is referred to internally as the "EA Retirement Home".

"They might think they are (or were) creative powerhouses, but of course the creative people actually left EA long ago to seek work where they could be creative (take risks), and invent things," he or she added.

"EA hasn't done much of anything of interest in 10-15 years, as proven by the unstaunched bleeding out of equity over that entire time period. It's sad really, that company used to kick ass. Riccitiello was the single largest reason it stopped. Maybe it will heal, but I don't think so."

Harsh words. EA has said it will consider both internal and external candidates to succeed Riccitiello, but Pat's pointed out that COO Peter Moore is a perfect fit.