Zynga detractors are bad for industry, says EA's Hilleman

Zynga has seen plenty of negative press and criticism in the last year, and while some might think EA revels in seeing the top dog in the social space ripped apart by industry analysts or other rivals, EA's chief creative officer Rich Hilleman argues that it's bad when contemporaries attack Zynga or any other game company.

Speaking to VG247, Hilleman noted that he "gets the big picture" and would come to the defense of Zynga or anyone else in the industry.

"I don't like it when Zynga gets bad press, and I don't like it when THQ gets bad press," he commented. "There are folks at EA who think it's a 'they lose, I win' type of thing. I think that's not true. We are not a business that's big enough yet where we can afford for people to make our business look bad."

Hilleman continued, "If somebody writes something about Zynga that's wrong, I'm as likely to say it's wrong as anyone else is because I think misconceptions and mis-attributions in our business are just negative. They hurt everybody. They help nobody."

It's interesting to hear such remarks from EA, as the company has appeared to be very much on the offensive with Zynga and especially with Activision in the shooter space (Battlefield vs. Call of Duty). Hilleman's remarks seem to echo those of Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshber, who said last year, "We shouldn't be tearing each other apart fighting for a bigger piece of the pie - we should all be focused on trying to grow a bigger pie."