John Riccitiello: I think what redeems our industry is quality, and I think we take a step back every time we take a license and exploit it with a crappy game. That’s not what we’re about.

Multiplayer: If you look at recent sales of the “Iron Man” game — it was a Sega game — it sold very well, was in the top 10 in NPD monthly sales in America despite very poor review scores. It showed that if you get a license, you don’t even need to worry too much about making a good game because people are going to buy it. You guys have, as you point out, both the talent to make top-quality games and the money to get top licenses. Do you feel like the EA has the ability or even the responsibility to redeem licensed games from the state a lot of them are in now?

Riccitiello: I don’t actually believe EA is in the business of exploiting other people’s licenses with bad quality games. We’ve been there. Most of our competitors are there or have been there. That’s not what we do. We’re not really after that market. Now Metacritic isn’t always the best quality measure for some licensed games, but I know a good game when I see it. My team and our developers know a good game when we see it. The products we’re putting out this year from Hasbro — I don’t know how they’re going to do with Metacritic, but they’re innovative, they’re different. We’ve got the first E-rated shooter with our Nerf game. What we’re doing with our “Family Game Night,” what we’re doing with “Littlest Pet Shop” — really cool stuff — what we’re doing with “Sims” — really cool stuff. It feels like it’s demographically similar but it’s very highly innovative. I think what redeems our industry is quality, and I think we take a step back every time we take a license and exploit it with a crappy game. That’s not what we’re about.