With Electronic Arts now officially owned by Saudi Arabia, CEO Andrew Wilson has made some changes at the top, appointing former EA Sports president Cam Weber as president and chief operating officer, and former "chief experiences officer"—basically the top marketing and communications role—as president and chief operating officer.
The announcement of the promotions came in a message initially shared with employees that was presumably meant to be reassuring, but lands mostly as just empty pap. After waxing poetic about the company's long and eventful history, Wilson said EA is "entering one of the most exciting and transformative moments our industry has ever seen."
"Every era of innovation expands what's possible," Wilson wrote. "New technologies open new doors, but it is the creativity, ingenuity and courage of our teams that transform possibilities into unforgettable experiences. At EA, we've always believed our greatest opportunity is to create what others haven't yet imagined. This is the spirit that has guided us for more than four decades, and it will continue to shape our future."
It's the kind of wordy, meaningless positivity usually reserved for shareholder calls (when EA had those), but vaguely familiar to my reading, too: A slightly reworded take on the increasingly common promise that yes, we're using AI for game development, but it's all driven by human creativity.
AI does seem likely to feature largely in EA's future: Silver Lake CEO and managing partner Egon Durban said the new owners will "invest heavily in EA’s growth, including what AI can do to enhance game development and player experience," and less cheerfully, there's also an expectation of massive layoffs to follow as EA looks to manage the billions in debt it's taken on to finance this deal.
The promotion of Weber and Tinson was similarly exuberant: Wilson said EA will need "bold creativity and exceptional execution" as it moves into its next phase, but fortunately it has "a deeply experienced leadership team across the company."
I think it's notable that Weber was previously the head of EA Sports. Some observers, including former BioWare lead writer Trick Weekes, have speculated that EA's takeover will leave it tightly focused on its dominant franchises—EA Sports FC and Battlefield, basically—to the exclusion of smaller-scale fare. Without wanting to read too much into it, putting the top EA Sports guy in charge of all EA studios can pretty easily be seen as movement in that direction.
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