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EA's Riccitiello Wants Wii Price Drop, Frustrated By Third Party Support
In an interview with Industry Gamers, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has some surprisingly frank opinions on Nintendo's Wii console and the Japanese console maker's policies towards third-party game publishers.
"I would say they did exceptionally well in ‘07 and ‘08, started tapering in ‘09 and ‘10, and... I think if they were to price down to $99, they would explode. I think they’ve now got competition, in the form of gesture-based gaming from Sony and Microsoft," said Riccitiello.
He also had harsh words for Nintendo's support of third-party games for its systems.
"I think it’s a frustration for all third-party publishers, when a platform holder does less to promote third-party content...it’s really tough to come up with a dozen great titles that have been platform defining for them that weren’t their own," Riccitiello observed. "I don’t care whether it’s Mario or Twilight Princess or GoldenEye; it was their own content. I’m going back to N64, and I can go back to SNES if you want, but they’ve never really been a heavy third-party supporting system."
For more from Riccitiello, read the full story on Industry Gamers.
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