In an article on gamesindustri.biz, EA boss John Riccitiello talks about the changes of the gaming industry and his company's acquisition policy. Electronic Arts, arguably the world's biggest game producer, have bought several smaller producers over the years; Bullfrog, Origin Systems and Westwood to name a few. Bullfrog had such games as "Populous", "Syndicate", "Magic Carpet" and "Theme Park". Origin Systems made "Ultima", "Crusader", "Wing Commander" and "System Shock", and Westwood are renowned for their "Command & Conquer", "Dune" and "Kyrandia" games.

Now Mr. Riccitiello admits his company could have done a better job in promoting all the gold they collected in these companies, the acquisitions of which "ran out in the sand" a bit. A lot of the creativity in these companies were simply lost in the race to make things bigger and bigger, and the distinctive character of the "made-in-a-garage and "financed-by-a-VISA-card" became lost; such a thing is not possible today. According to the article at gamesindustry.biz, a decade ago, a team of 25-50 people could create a game. At the time, EA published on three platforms – today, they publish on over 12 platforms, not counting hundreds of different mobile handsets.

Riccitiello: "I would posit today that that number is in the 200 range for creating a AAA franchise. There is a collective of people that is much greater today, and paying those salaries is a much greater cost. [...] There are risks in consolidation in any business. In our industry, creative failure stands at the very top of that list of risks."

He went on to characterize EA's purchase of said smaller companies as a failure:

"We at EA blew it. To a degree I was involved in these things, so I can say I blew it."

Riccitiello also talked about the purchases of BioWare and Pandemic, and said he was optimistic:

"It seems to be working. I think we are on a good track."

The way to do it in the future is not, according to the EA CEO, to use the old C&C model and take credit for other people's work, but to entrust the game makers with more responsibility, letting the developers do what they want to do:

"Find people you trust, give them the keys, empower them, let them do the heavy lifting."