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EA CEO says decline of social games overhyped

John Riccitiello says the big lesson from current crisis is "consumers won't pay for crap"

Zynga's much publicized struggles of late have some investors questioning the future of the social gaming market, but Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello believes the current pessimism in the market is a bit much. According to an AllThingsD report, Riccitiello used his keynote address at the App Conference today to say the social gaming market is not dying, but it is changing.

"The companies that are now suffering will have another day," Riccitiello said, adding that the future of the social market will be built on great games. He namechecked Backflip Studios' Dragonvale and EA's own The Simpsons Tapped Out as examples of quality games, and said the biggest lesson to come from the sector's current struggles is, "consumers won't pay for crap."

According to AppData, Electronic Arts has just one Facebook app in the social network's top 50 app rankings. That app is The Sims Social, ranked 35th with 10.7 million monthly active users. Zynga's The Ville, the game EA alleges is a copyright-infringing clone of The Sims Social, is ranked 20th, with 18.7 million MAUs.

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Brendan Sinclair avatar

Brendan Sinclair

Managing Editor

Brendan joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2012. Based in Toronto, Ontario, he was previously senior news editor at GameSpot in the US.

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