????近日，美國(guó)電子藝界（Electronics Arts）前首席執(zhí)行官約翰?里奇泰洛在3月30日卸任后首度公開(kāi)發(fā)表講話。作為長(zhǎng)期負(fù)責(zé)視頻游戲的高管，里奇泰洛在于舊金山舉行的Casual Connect視頻游戲大會(huì)上表示，他過(guò)去四個(gè)月花了很多時(shí)間玩視頻游戲。里奇泰洛是為數(shù)不多的會(huì)長(zhǎng)時(shí)間玩《戰(zhàn)地》（Battlefield）等游戲的游戲公司高管之一。他經(jīng)常會(huì)為開(kāi)發(fā)中的游戲提供設(shè)計(jì)建議。卸任之后，他對(duì)游戲的癡迷似乎有增無(wú)減。

????在執(zhí)掌曾經(jīng)風(fēng)光無(wú)限的電子藝界六年后，里奇泰洛于今年早些時(shí)候辭職。總部位于加州雷德伍德城的游戲發(fā)行商電子藝界正在尋找新的掌門人。在此期間，由曾經(jīng)于1991至2007年間擔(dān)任公司首席執(zhí)行官的拉里?普羅斯特?fù)?dān)任執(zhí)行董事長(zhǎng)。Wedbush證券公司分析師邁克爾?帕切特聲稱，上月走馬上任成為社交游戲公司Zynga新任首席執(zhí)行官的前Xbox負(fù)責(zé)人唐?馬特里克原本是最有可能的候選人。里奇泰洛雖然獲得了一些成功，但他未能使電子藝界轉(zhuǎn)型成為一家偏重于以數(shù)字業(yè)務(wù)為導(dǎo)向的公司。他也未能提升公司的股價(jià)。里奇泰洛離任時(shí)，電子藝界的股價(jià)為每股18.71美元。而他2007年上任時(shí)，這家公司的股價(jià)為每股61.40美元。（目前，電子藝界的股價(jià)約每股26美元。）

????里奇泰洛是否因此感到一絲苦澀？貌似沒(méi)有。微軟（Microsoft）的Xbox 360和索尼（Sony）的PlayStation 4將帶領(lǐng)市場(chǎng)價(jià)值高達(dá)700億美元的全球游戲業(yè)務(wù)進(jìn)入新的游戲機(jī)周期。有鑒于此，里奇泰洛十分看好游戲業(yè)的未來(lái)。他相信，這些功能完備、完全整合、能連接到大尺寸電視機(jī)的在線超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)將比目前這一代的硬件更成功。或許如此吧，但困擾游戲廠商的問(wèn)題在于，蘋果（Apple）iPad和谷歌（Google）驅(qū)動(dòng)的智能手機(jī)等移動(dòng)設(shè)備的影響對(duì)傳統(tǒng)的游戲開(kāi)發(fā)將意味著什么。

????里奇泰洛說(shuō)：“我對(duì)下一代游戲主機(jī)很有信心，不過(guò)隨著移動(dòng)游戲市場(chǎng)涌現(xiàn)出十幾億新用戶，我認(rèn)為這也是一個(gè)值得特別關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域。移動(dòng)游戲目前發(fā)展很快，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)傳統(tǒng)游戲機(jī)。我當(dāng)初還在電子藝界工作時(shí)拜訪過(guò)許多移動(dòng)游戲開(kāi)發(fā)者。他們中的不少人都表示正打算將主機(jī)級(jí)的圖像效果帶入移動(dòng)設(shè)備，從而創(chuàng)造出獨(dú)一無(wú)二的出色游戲。我認(rèn)為這種想法是錯(cuò)誤的。如果回到我當(dāng)年發(fā)布主機(jī)和PC游戲的年代，單單只注重圖像效果，而忽略了對(duì)游戲性的追求，結(jié)果將導(dǎo)致游戲一敗涂地。”

????由于英特爾（Intel）、高通（Qualcomm）和英偉達(dá)（NVIDIA）等公司的相互角力，移動(dòng)CPU和GPU的發(fā)展非常迅猛，里奇泰洛認(rèn)為這種情形和1997年3D游戲機(jī)強(qiáng)勢(shì)崛起時(shí)的情況很相似。當(dāng)時(shí)，游戲研發(fā)費(fèi)用暴漲了200%，但銷售收入?yún)s基本沒(méi)有增加，那些制作圖像逼真的飛行模擬游戲和即時(shí)戰(zhàn)略游戲的公司苦苦掙扎。不過(guò)，一些公司利用3D技術(shù)積極探索新的游戲類型，比如體育競(jìng)技游戲的表現(xiàn)就相當(dāng)不俗。

????Former Electronics Arts CEO John Riccitiello recently made his first public speech since stepping down on March 30. Speaking at the Casual Connect video game conference in San Francisco, the long-time video game executive says he spent a lot of the past four months, well, playing video games. Known as one of the few game execs that actually logged hours playing the likes of Battlefield, Riccitiello often offered design recommendations for titles in development. His love affair seems undiminished.

????Riccitiello stepped down earlier this year after a six-year stint at the helm of the once-towering EA (EA). Larry Probst, the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm's CEO from 1991 to 2007, took over as executive chairman while the games publisher searches for a new leader. Wedbush securities analyst Michael Pachter claimed that former Xbox chief Don Mattrick was the most likely candidate to replace Riccitiello before decamping to Zynga (ZNGA) as CEO last month. Though he had some success, Riccitiello had struggled to transition the company into a more digitally oriented business. He also had trouble goading the stock price up; the publisher traded at $18.71 at the time of his departure, down from $61.40 in 2007 when he took over. (It is now around $26.)

????Is Riccitiello bitter? It doesn't sound that way. With the $70 billion global games business about to enter a new console cycle with Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 4, Riccitiello is bullish on gaming's future. He said he believes these fully functioning, fully integrated online super computers connected to large televisions will be more successful than the current generation of hardware. Perhaps, but the question haunting game makers is what the impact of mobile devices like Apple (AAPL) iPads and Google-powered (GOOG) phones will mean for traditional development.

????"I'm still a believer in the next generation of consoles, but another billion and a half people came into the industry as a consequence of mobile and I think that's a pretty cool place to focus," said Riccitiello. "Mobile is growing at an infinitely better rate right now than console, but I visited with many mobile developers during the time I was at EA. I've heard many developers say they're going to bring console level graphics to mobile screens and that's going to make them different and better. I think that's a mistake. If I go back to the time I was launching console and PC games, investing in better graphics without figuring out what incremental or better gameplay experience was going to reward the player is a road to ruin."

????Riccitiello compared the current mobile landscape with a new generation of CPUs and GPUs entering the marketplace from companies Intel (INTC), Qualcomm (QCOM), and NVIDIA (NVDA) to the early days of 3-D console gaming in 1997. Back then, development costs tripled, but revenue remained about the same, and outfits making graphically intensive flight simulation and real-time strategy games, for instance, struggled. Companies that use 3-D to explore new types of gameplay such as sports titles did better.