For the past, oh, year or two, EA have been trying to change. Trying to shed that nasty image of the ruthless, money-hungry publishing giant. And they're slowly, oh so slowly, succeeding! Sure, that has a lot to do with Activision emerging as an even more evil company, but it also has to do with EA's new focus on internal IP, which is bringing us games like Army of Two, Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. Part of that new focus is in the area of quality control, boss John Riccitiello telling Gamasutra:
If you want to put good food on the table and you’ve got chefs in the back, you give them better ingredients, better training — and when you burn the omelet, you don’t serve it.
Oh, the omelet/burning metaphors don't end there. He continues:
When something's not meeting expectations... you can course correct by giving it more time, more money, changing the concept or killing the game. If you're committed to quality, you take one of those paths," Riccitiello adds. "If you preclude any one of those paths, quality will suffer." EA will kill a game or two a year. Forever. Any company that serves every dish that comes out of the oven whether it’s burned or not is not committed to quality... U2 made great albums, Steven Spielberg made great films. It doesn’t mean they don’t have their Tiberiums.
And suddenly I have a craving for omelettes... Riccitiello Hates DRM, Respects Protesters, Tackles Controversies [Gamasutra]