EA: Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood... ya no existen. ¿Culpa de quien?, pues nuestra claro

Ideally, Riccitiello believes, studios within a large publisher should operate like independent studios freed from having to worry about making payroll and strategizing marketing. He said he hoped EA's own internal studios would be like Valve Software or Blizzard Entertainment--self-contained organizations with strong leaders primed for massive growth and creativity.

"The command and conquer model, the command and direct model doesn't work," said Riccitiello. He went on to concede that EA's past post-acquisition tactics backfired badly. Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood--all no longer exist today because something broke. ... and I'll simply state that EA blew it, and to a certain degree, since I was involved, I blew it."


To learn from his mistakes, Riccitiello spoke with unnamed members of the aforementioned dissolved studios. "They told me they were stifled by politics, bureaucracy, and a fact they felt they weren't heard," he said. As a result, he is empowering his studio heads by giving them the corporate equivalent of the Bat-phone. "Large organizations will screw up, and if you have a strong leader at a studio, they'll call me up directly and change the direction of the company."