Investors dont give a sh*t about quality, says Riccitiello

EA CEO John Riccitiello has said that, as far as game content goes, his investors don’t give a shit about quality”.

Riccitiello was speaking in an E3 interview with Venture Beat, in which he also asserted that Metcritic scores were a good way to judge the quality of EA’s games – and the improvement in what the company has developed since he took over in 2006.

When asked why EA’s stock hadn’t moved despite a noticeable raise in its average critical rating, Riccitiello said:

I don’t think the investors give a shit about our quality. They care about our earnings per share. They wait for it to happen. We had three years where we didn’t make our expectations. If I were an investor, I would wait and see. That’s fine with me.”

In a separate E3 interview on Venture Beat, Riccitiello rival and Take Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick said he’d shake the EA chief’s hand if he bumped into him.

Zelnick and Riccitiello have been locked in an intense war of words since EA’s first bid for the Rockstar parent in February, as the Redwood publisher has continue to pursue its aggressive acquisition attempt.

However, Zelnick told the website of his relationship with Riccitiello:

We’ve taken enormous pains to be judicious in everything we’ve said. No, this is business. It’s not personal.”

In his interview, Riccitiello added: I don’t care if people write about Take-Two. It doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that the best developers want to work for EA. That the best games are published by EA. And we’re making progress toward that goal.”