EA CEO John Riccitiello tendered his resignation today, resulting in him leaving the business at the end of March. Riccitiello has not been able to create a best seller and last week had a PR duster with SimCity. Thus this may be seen as him paying the price for one too many mishaps. SimCity has only sold 1.1 million copies and a majority of these are digital downloads.
“We thank John for his contributions to EA since he was appointed CEO in 2007, especially the passion, dedication and energy he brought to the Company every single day,” said Larry Probst, who will be serving as Executive Chairman.
“John has worked hard to lead the Company through challenging transitions in our industry, and was instrumental in driving our very significant growth in digital revenues. We appreciate John’s leadership and the many important strategic initiatives he has driven for the Company. We have mutually agreed that this is the right time for a leadership transition.”
So where to now for Electronic Arts? They will search for a new CEO but they need to find a winning formula soon. SimCity seemingly needs more time to be successful as it is an under-performing game with regards to sales at the moment.
