In a conversation with Bloomberg, EA CEO John Riccitello said some pretty raw dog things in terms of who they are considering acquiring and partnering with in the future. He most specifically made very pointed comments about the question of buying the in-stores-now music game developer Harmonix:
Translation: things are pretty unstable right now, and buying the lead developer in what is pretty much a waning genre seems like a pretty bad investment, even if it is THE guys who made this whole party begin in the first place. This is mostly surprising due to EA's past relationship with Harmonix, as distributor of the Rock Band games, but it is also pretty indiciative of just how dead everyone seems to think this whole rhythm game trend is about to become (if we aren't already there)."Moves that look like I'm doubling down on yesterday would make it harder to still convince investors that tomorrow is the Promise Land...I'm sure some smart investor will buy the business feeling they can catch a falling knife, but more people have been cut trying to catch falling knives than have benefited from getting the timing exactly right."
Overall, this is a pretty dire interview in general, though it is always refreshing to see people like JR talking frankly about the state of the business of gaming, even if that state can be boiled down to "pretty dang bad."
Source: Bloomberg
Log in to comment