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| FEBRUARY 28, 2008 |
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - John Riccitiello, head of
Electronic Arts, is showing a chart to Wall Street analysts
and he is not happy.
This chart, Riccitiello grouses, shows the one metric that
has most frustrated him since he took over the world's
largest video game publisher nearly a year ago.
It doesn't show the company's falling operating profit or
sliding market share. Instead, it shows the average
score for EA's video games on Metacritic.org, a Web site
that distills a pool of reviews for a given game down to a
single number.
Electronic Arts, is showing a chart to Wall Street analysts
and he is not happy.
This chart, Riccitiello grouses, shows the one metric that
has most frustrated him since he took over the world's
largest video game publisher nearly a year ago.
It doesn't show the company's falling operating profit or
sliding market share. Instead, it shows the average
score for EA's video games on Metacritic.org, a Web site
that distills a pool of reviews for a given game down to a
single number.
What has Riccitiello worked up is that EA's average score fell last year to 72 from 77.
"There is nothing acceptable about that," Riccitiello says. "Our core game titles are accurately
measured and summarized by these assessments, and that is a very big deal."
"So this is perhaps, to me, the most important chart in this presentation, we need to recover
here."
Throughout EA's investor day last week, Riccitiello and other executives referred frequently to
Metacritic, underscoring just how influential the site has become in the $18 billion U.S. video
game industry.
Launched in 2001 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts and Jason Dietz, a former
classmate at University of Southern California's law school, Metacritic is now a part of online
technology media company CNET Networks.
"We never created Metacritic as an industry kind of thing. It was always for educating the
user," Doyle said.
Started originally to compile movie reviews, Metacritic quickly branched out into other forms of
entertainment, with games now accounting for the most traffic to the site.
"For a movie it's going to cost you $10 to $12 bucks and it's a two-hour investment of your
time. Whether critics like it is not a huge deal. But a game costs $60 and 20 to 30 hours of
your life, so you want to know ahead of time whether a game is good," Doyle said.
As the man in charge of the game scoring system, Doyle feels a lot of heat from some game
companies and reviewers who feel they aren't getting a fair shake. [read more]
"There is nothing acceptable about that," Riccitiello says. "Our core game titles are accurately
measured and summarized by these assessments, and that is a very big deal."
"So this is perhaps, to me, the most important chart in this presentation, we need to recover
here."
Throughout EA's investor day last week, Riccitiello and other executives referred frequently to
Metacritic, underscoring just how influential the site has become in the $18 billion U.S. video
game industry.
Launched in 2001 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts and Jason Dietz, a former
classmate at University of Southern California's law school, Metacritic is now a part of online
technology media company CNET Networks.
"We never created Metacritic as an industry kind of thing. It was always for educating the
user," Doyle said.
Started originally to compile movie reviews, Metacritic quickly branched out into other forms of
entertainment, with games now accounting for the most traffic to the site.
"For a movie it's going to cost you $10 to $12 bucks and it's a two-hour investment of your
time. Whether critics like it is not a huge deal. But a game costs $60 and 20 to 30 hours of
your life, so you want to know ahead of time whether a game is good," Doyle said.
As the man in charge of the game scoring system, Doyle feels a lot of heat from some game
companies and reviewers who feel they aren't getting a fair shake. [read more]
Top exec grimaces at his own gamer
score
Game scoring site wields industry clout
score
Game scoring site wields industry clout
