Rickety rochelledde,
John Riccitiello said:
"Change if you must, Will, but
Don't go away!"
Ace game designer Will
Wright took appraisal, then --
Shig'u Mi-YA-moto! --
Said: "I (Will) stay."
-- Double dactyl by Anders Bylund, ten seconds ago
Would you bank on a team that just lost the star player on its roster? The Miami Heat are nothing if you eliminate Dwayne Wade. Michael Jordan had an all-star cast around him in the '90s Chicago Bulls -- but His Airness was still unarguably the difference-maker. Nobody would bet on a leaderless team.
So this week, as legendary video game designer Will Wright leaves the payroll of Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, formerly known as the #1 video game publisher in the world, has lost its crown to Activision-Blizzard
Well, the sky would normally be crashing down on EA's heads. Except that Will didn't exactly move a million miles away. Wright's new project -- named after his prize-winning Robot Wars team, the Stupid Fun Club -- is actually a joint venture. EA and Will Wright each hold a 50% stake in the company, and EA has right of first refusal to "develop game concepts that spring from Stupid Fun Club projects."
This means greater creative freedom for Wright -- if EA doesn't like his ideas, he can take them elsewhere. And a 50% stake in the business gives Wright a massive say on pretty much everything. Also, he leaves many of his former employees behind at EA, where he spent more than a decade building awesome games -- and networking. Expect EA to snap up the majority of Wright's forthcoming ideas.
Will Wright stands shoulder to shoulder with true legends of video gaming, such as Nintendo's (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) Shigeru Miyamoto (the man behind Super Mario, Zelda, Wii Fit, and more) and Sid Meier (Pirates!, the Civilization series, and others), who now works for Take-Two.
The JV looks like a brainiac move for all parties involved. EA gets a guaranteed flow of fresh game seeds, Wright strikes it rich -- and if everything works out to plan, so will shareholders when those seeds bloom and bear fruit. With sequels.
Further stupid fun Foolishness: