Throughout the last few months, there’s been reports of people jumping ship from anything Electronic Arts(EA) touches. The founder of EA left; studio heads and founders at PopCap, Criterion and Chillingo, left too.
Now the Vice President and head PR guru Jeff Brown has put on his life vest to bail on the EA boat. Jeff Brown has endured two consecutive “Worst Company in America” awards in his 14 year stint with the company.
In a VentureBeat article, Brown stated how fond he was of the time spent with the people at EA.
“People tend to forget EA is a company full of people… They are proud of what they built. When someone attacks it, they respond. EA is misunderstood a lot. It’s a company full of people who are really passionate about games.”
In addition to his humbling comments about his co-workers, he also speaks briefly about his experience with the company.
“I spent 14 years at EA… The only institution I have ever done longer is my marriage. When I started, I thought it would be a 12-month gig. I had no intention of staying that long. I fell in love with games, and I have a lot of close friends at EA. I am completely supportive of Andrew. But it was a good time for me to say goodbye.”
Andrew Wilson is the new CEO after founder John Riccitiello left. Most of the other folks who’ve left EA went back into something related to the industry. Jeff became inspired to take a job in corporate communications with GoPro. GoPro is an extreme sports camera designer.
My Thoughts
Either this is a really good thing for EA, to start anew with plenty of new faces. Though on the other hand, this could be a sign of things going sour really fast for a company with a bad reputation. One thing going in its favor would be the upcoming title, Titanfall. It won several awards at 2013’s E3 press conference, and promises to sell very well.
Though EA has never lacked on the game front, in recent years its PR campaign could use some major repairs. A botched launch for the recent Battlefield 4, loss of the NCAA franchise, and the inconsistencies with SimCity have already overshadowed this year. Hopefully all the hard-working developers under their umbrella will continue to make great games and keep the company alive and well.
