The lights are on
In recent weeks, we’ve reported on the departure of the heads of Criterion, PopCap, and Chillingo, all owned by EA. Now the publisher has lost its communications chief. Jeff Brown has departed the company after 14 years.
The news comes by way of VentureBeat, which interviewed Brown recently. He’s now heading up corporate communications at GoPro, a company that makes cameras designed to withstand the rigors of extreme sports.
Up until September, Brown headed up the communications operation of one of the world’s largest publishers, and is known for being direct in his comments. Brown led EA through its “wins” in two Consumerist “Worst Company in America” polls, attacks by FOX News over Mass Effect sex scenes and violent content in Bulletstorm, and 2013's tumultuous SimCity launch.
According to VentureBeat’s report, David Tinson has been tapped to head up EA’s corporate communication efforts. Brown says that his departure is not due to new CEO Andrew Wilson. “I am completely supportive of Andrew. But it was a good time for me to say goodbye,” he says.
[Source: VentureBeat, LinkedIn]
Our TakeEA is currently in the midst of recovering from another public relations challenge, and this time without the guidance of Jeff Brown. Battlefield 4 has been under repair since its launch, and while the situation is improving, it’s not yet time to sound the all clear.
EA has a lot of fences to mend with the public. Wilson and Tinson need to make sure that 2014 is a turnaround year for the public. Being hitched to the Titanfall wagon as a contracted publisher (rather than an owner of developer Respawn) has the potential to be a springboard for a perception overhaul.
When a Vice President leaves.....something is about to go down LOL
You go, sir, go pro.
Everyone is jumping from the sinking ship!
So GoPros are now going to have micro-transactions?
I feel like, after 3 big execs leave, it's enough to establish a pattern. Now that we're at 4 in the past 3 weeks or so, it's pretty clear something is going on, and people are choosing NOW as a good time to get out. What is going on behind the scenes? And what is it about the future that's getting so many people to go running?
It's way obvious that the way EA runs things currently sucks, and they can't get away with it anymore -- a lot of things built up to that, and BF4 was the straw that broke the camel's back it seems (Thank God something did). But still; to see so many departuresso quickly...
There must be A WHOLE LOT of people who are not fans of the direction the company is heading. If that's the case, it's nice to know that internally, there are people like us gamers who know bad decisions when they see them. It's a shame these people didn't do more to fight back against microtransactions, rushed/buggy releases, stupid PR blunders, wasting money on developing a game that never releases -- remember that EA had a WHOLE Command & Conquer game developed last year, guys? --- or all that stuff.
Who's next, I wonder? Who did they pin the blame on for SimCity? Did that person leave yet? Or NBA Live - if I were the poor guy who had to come out and take that one "for the team", I'd quit after this. Who got blamed for NCAA and their nasty lawsuit? God, EA sucked this year. From beginning (Hey, everybody! You all love brodude shooters, right? We made Dead Space 3 into one! Give us money!) to the end (Hey everybody! You all love Call of Duty right? We have this thing like it called Battlefield! It's not finished yet! Give us money!). *sigh*
I'm sensing a trend here lol
Don't blame the guy for jumping ship.