Electronic Arts has been seeing several departures in the past few months, with developers from PopCap Interactive, Criterion and recently with Chillingo as well. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter recently spoke to VG247 about these departures, especially Chillingo since, “The Chillingo founders are really the glue that holds that organization together, so I think their departure is a big deal.
“I don’t know the Criterion guys well, but I would say that the departure of the two co-founders is less of a big deal, as they haven’t worked on any original IP since Black. They are really talented, but I think that the remaining crew is capable of backfilling.
“The Chillingo guys are a lot harder to replace than many of the others, since Chillingo is such a small team and had such a high success rate.
Pachter also gave his take on who would be next, naming EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau. “I don’t expect any high profile departures, other than Frank Gibeau. He was reassigned to a much less influential position and promptly sold all of his stock, so I think he is planning a move soon.”
On being asked whether COO Peter Moore would depart any time soon, Pachter said, “Peter is an old guy and has a lot of money, so he’s probably ready to stop working and start enjoying his life, but I would expect him to stick around a couple more years to help Andrew ease into the CEO role. They are close, and I think Peter has agreed to help mentor Andrew.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how EA proceeds in the coming months, especially since we’re only two months into the next console generation. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.