Electronic Arts, BioWare/Pandemic Bosses Resh...

Electronic Arts, BioWare/Pandemic Bosses Reshuffle

To cut a long story short, Electronic Arts and the BioWare/Pandemic game development giant are both going through a change of CEOs right now, and both their new chief executive officers have a past history with Electronic Arts. The man that spaked this whole reshuffle is John Riccitiello - who previously served as EA's president and CEO up until 2004, when he left the publisher to co-found Elevation Partners, where he oversaw the group's videogame business.

As you may remember from late 2005, Elevation Partners invested some $300 million in order to secure an alliance between famed developers BioWare and Pandemic. And ever since that fusion, Riccitiello also served as the part-time CEO for VG Holding (the operating company of BioWare/Pandemic Studios).

Now, fast forward to present day, and we have John Riccitiello taking back his CEO position at Electronic Arts (effective April 2), in a surprising announcement issued by the company last night. EA's former CEO, Larry Probst has gracefully stepped down to welcome back John, though he will continue as executive chairman of the company's Board of Directors.

"We're happy to welcome John back as EA's new CEO", said Larry Probst. "His skill and vision as an executive and his experience in our industry have earned him the respect of our employees and shareholders."

"Leading EA has always been my dream job and I am truly honored that Larry and the Board have given me this opportunity", said John Riccitiello. "This is an extremely well-run company driven by outstanding studio and publishing teams. They've also made strategic investments in new platforms and markets that will help extend EA's industry leadership in the years ahead."

Over on the Pandemic/BioWare website, they announce that VG Holding's now-vacant CEO position will be filled in by Greg Richardson, who has been a senior executive with BioWare/Pandemic since the inception of the firm. Prior to that, ironically enough, he also used to work for Electronic Arts, as general manager of the EA Partners division. So don't be too surprised if he finds his way back to EA one day, seeing how history has this nasty habit of repeating itself...

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)