Yesterday we were informed that current CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello will be stepping down as of March 30th. As they are wont to do, video game news website Kotaku collected a series of humorous messages from gaming personalities on the social media website “Twitter.com” and turned that into an article.
Incensed, Moore took to other popular social media website “Facebook.com” to offer his opinion on the piece, stating:
"Kotaku reveling in what, due to their self-smugness, they don't realize is a sad day for our industry, which is the platform on which they actually make money. John not only helped propel our company and interactive entertainment into new experiences, thus enticing millions of new people to become 'gamers', his work leading the ESA in recent years has helped ensure that we don't experience the fate of the music industry,"
After this, the subject in question John Riccitiello added the brief message of "Thanks all."
This isn’t the first time in the last few weeks that Moore has been publicly outspoken regarding press coverage of his company, lashing out against an article written by Videogamer that had suggested there would be no further return to the Dead Space series, citing poor sales of the most recent entry. Peter Moore’s statements put doubt on the veracity of Videogamer’s source.
Negative comments aside, EA’s stock has been rising since the announcement of Riccitello’s departure.
Moore is a likely candidate to replace Riccitello as CEO. This move to defend him could be seen as a tactic to remain humble and thereby trustworthy, or may actually display genuine contempt for the treatment of a colleague. We’re far too jaded to be sure.