EA CEO Larry Probst Steps Down

wjamesau writes "After 2006's rollercoast stock performance and amid criticism that the giant publisher had become over-reliant on sequels, Electronic Arts' CEO Larry Probst has just stepped down. GigaGamez reports, and wonders if this means other publishers will feel pressure to develop more original IP."

Comments

Get his name right.

[grub]

Headline says "Probts", story says "Probst"

Re:Get his name right.

[Ctrl-Z]

And... shouldn't it be Larry instead of Jeff?

Manage it like a Stock Portfolio

[AKAImBatman]

This is definitely *interesting* news, but it's questionable whether it will change anything. Even the best intentioned CEOs have a hard time risking their cash cows on untested brands and genres.

Truth be told, I think EA needs to manage it like a stock portfolio. Have X amount of high risk, Y amount of medium risk, and Z amount of low risk. The actual percentages of those items can vary depending on the market climate and the status of the company.

The advantage to a mixed strategy is that EA can continue to provide fans of a series with some sequels, but dial back the number in exchange for developing new genres and brands. Developing those brands could potentially provide EA with a sizable library of IP without having to stripmine the small development houses. That gives them a mixture of low and high risk. Something that can guarantee a positive cash flow when properly handled.

For the medium risk stuff, EA should pull out some of their old IP and see about doing proper updates or sequels to them. Rather than just mining the name (as they have done in the past), they should give the development team a free hand to develop a game in the true spirit of the original. For example, Wing Commander is a series that is sorely missed by fans. It never really died, having been killed off by EA's strip mining procedures. What they need to do is go drag Point of No Return Entertainment out of their pit, and get Chris Roberts to direct a new WC game. The costs would be significant, but there is a significant market that would purchase the game just because it's Wing Commander. That mitigates the risk some, and provides EA with a chance to make incredible sums of money off the title.

I suppose we'll have to see whether this new CEO shows the inititive to take his company in such a direction.

On another topic, who thinks that Wing Commander is ripe for a reboot? :D

Re:Manage it like a Stock Portfolio

[AKAImBatman]

EA is bringing back Wing Commander, and it looks awful.

That's not Wing Commander. That's just EA slapping the name on a quicky XBox Live! game to drive up sales. They do the same thing with their Pogo.com games. Take a look sometime and you'll find such gems as:

- Generic Chopper Game -> Command & Conquer Attack Copter
- Generic Racing Game -> Need for Speed Top Speed
- Generic Golf Game -> Pebble Beach Golf
- Generic Soccer Game -> EA Sports Soccer

What I'd *like* them to do is stop mining their IP, and start building it. Like I said, dig Chris Roberts out of whatever hole he crawled into, and get a proper Wing Commander game done. And if they retell the story, we can go back to the beginning with the Tiger's Claw (note the 's) and the Kilrathi. None of this boneheaded Niphilim "story".

LARRY Probst, not Jeff

[LoudMusic]

Jeff Probst is the Survivor host. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Probst

Larry Probst is the EA CEO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Probst

Get your funny named rich people straight, sheesh.