Once again John Riccitiello, EA’s CEO, has stepped up to a microphone in order to tell us all what the future holds. As easy as it is to dismiss everything the man says for the simple fact that he heads up one of the most “infamous” companies in the industry, he may actually be right on the money this time. For the most part anyway…

Find out what EA’s CEO has to say about Hollywood and video games after the jump!

In yesterday’s Financial Times, Johnny Boy gave us his take on Hollywood as it relates to the video game industry. Riccitiello thinks that video games, and not movies, are becoming the dominant form of entertainment.

He told the Financial Times “The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks…is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before… There is more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There’s a big reset happening now.”

I agree with the idea that Hollywood has more interest in taking advantage of video games, than the gaming industry has in making film based titles. I don’t think the Iron Man film is in any danger of losing tons of money due to GTA though, at least not directly. I do think that more people will buy a copy of GTA IV than will go see the Iron Man film, but “get killed”? I doubt it. In the long run a big shift in the entertainment industry will no doubt occur as video games continue to prove that not only can they provide feature film level quality and entertainment, but also long term sales and brand viability. So, while I “basically agree” with Riccitiello, his Iron Man/GTA IV example sounds pretty contrived to me…especially with the ongoing Take-Two fiasco still unresolved.

Johhny Boy also thinks video games are finally starting to be recognized as an art form on par with feature films and not just products for kids. Well duh, I think the rest of the teen/adult video gamers out there, who are the foundation for the multi-billion dollar gaming industry, clued into that one about a decade ago, but whatever.

Riccitiello told the Financial Times “The greatest games will be viewed by almost everybody as being as important as Best Picture at the Academy Awards.”

I definitely agree with him on that point. Now, if we can just get a video game award organization that takes things as serious as the Oscars I’d be happy. The Spike Video Game Awards were a total joke and the Emmy’s for Video Games seem to be trapped in time.

Johnny, rather blatantly pandering to Take-Two, said that he would nominate GTA IV as a Best Picture equivalent. However, he did make a point of saying that EA did not need RockStar/Take-Two to be the biggest player in this new world where video games are the dominant form of entertainment.

Again speaking to the Financial Times Johnny Boy said “I read a book on how every medium creates one great company: animation created Disney, CBS was created by radio, NBC by television. Interactive entertainment is going to determine one great company and I think it’s this one.”

If that’s true, why didn’t he nominated one of EA’s titles for “Best Picture?” Isn’t it funny how even when he is describing relevant, meaningful facets of the gaming industry he still manages to come off “greasier” than Robin Williams in “Cadillac Man?”

Source: GameSpot

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