EA Disparages N-Gage; Plans For New Hardware

Speaking at the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecommunications Summit in New York, Electronic Arts president and COO John Riccitiello has made a number of interesting comments concerning current and future hardware, as well as the company’s relationship with major retailers. Riccitiello’s most controversial comments relate to the Nokia N-Gage console / mobile phone hybrid, of which he has said “When I picked that thing up I knew it was a dog – it just felt stupid.” Riccitiello also described the format's sales as “non-meaningful” but did go on to indicate that he felt that Nokia would eventually succeed in the games market. "Nokia will figure it out," he said. "It's just that they haven't figured it out yet." Speaking about the next generation of consoles in general Riccitiello has indicated that the company intends to outspend its competitors in the next two years and was now more likely to make acquisitions of smaller publishers while their development teams were still intact, rather than looking for cheap intellectual property in bankruptcy. "We're hiring a couple hundred people a quarter in this space - and they're usually coming from the companies that are falling apart," says Riccitiello. "Usually by the time a company gets into bankruptcy ... we've already hired everybody out of there we needed." Finally, Riccitiello revealed that Electronic Arts is one of the few companies that does not get pressured by US retail chain Wal-Mart to lower prices on its goods. According to him, "They place no margin pressure on us whatsoever, and I don't think they ever will." Source: Reuters