Games companies "boring people to death," says EA

EA CEO John Riccitiello has voiced concerns that certain games companies are currently "boring people to death," and says they need to push aggressively to broaden the appeal of videogames to drive the industry forward.

Reported by the Wall Street Journal, Riccitiello, appointed CEO in April, said he's worried that companies including EA are churning out too many games that lack innovation and sequels that offer little more than predecessors.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat." Riccitiello said. He reckons there just aren't enough games that are breaking new ground.

"There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," he went on to say, explaining he believes that on top of innovation much more needs to be done to draw in the casual audience or the games industry could lose out to competing entertainment sectors.

July 9, 2007