By Mark Baber
March 19 – John Riccitiello is resigning as CEO of Electronic Arts after six years in the job, taking responsibility for what are expected to be disappointing quarterly results, despite record breaking numbers for its FIFA games.
The problems at EA under Riccitiello are unrelated to the FIFA series of games which have sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
EA’s FIFA 12 holds the record for the “fastest selling sports game ever” with over 3.3 million games sold and more than $186 million generated at retail in its first week of release.
Riccitiello steps down on March 30 with Larry Probst taking temporary charge and current COO Peter Moore suggested as a possible replacement.
Riccitiello said: “The progress EA has made on transitioning to digital games and services is something I’m extremely proud of. However, it currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued in January, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. EA’s shareholders and employees expect better and I am accountable for the miss.”
Accepting the resignation, Probst wrote: “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. 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.”
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