Joining me today on bloomberg studio 1. 0, Electronic Arts ceo Andrew Wilson. Lets start at the beginning of your time at ea. 2013, the company was struggling financially. The consumerist named you the Worst Company of the year two years in a row, but today, it is different. You have reported record profits. What did you do differently . Andrew i have been in the Company Since 2000. In 2013, they made me ceo. Emily i dont think that is quite true. [laughter] andrew somewhere in there is some truth. We had struggled. It wasnt because we were a bad company or made bad games. We said, what is the most important thing . Who facilitates us to do what we love . That is the player. We started every conversation for the longest time and continuing today is, is this good for the player . It feels like an age ago now, but it is still the forefront of our memory, is there was a bunch of stuff that we were doing they did not like. There was a bunch of stuff they expected us to be doing and we were
Record earnings in 2017. Joining me today on bloomberg studio 1. 0, Electronic Arts ceo Andrew Wilson. Lets start at the beginning of your time at ea. 2013, the company was struggling financially. The consumerist named you the Worst Company of the year two years in a row, but today, it is different. You have reported record profits. What did you do differently . Andrew i have been in the Company Since 2000. In 2013, they made me ceo. Emily i dont think that is quite true. Andrew somewhere in there is some truth. We had struggled. It wasnt because we were a bad company or made bad games. It is because we lost our focus. We said, what is the most important thing . Who facilitates us to do what we love . Make games. That is the player. We started every conversation for the longest time and continuing today is, is this good for the player . What you discover, it feels like an age ago now, but it is still the forefront of our memory, is there was a bunch of stuff that we were doing they did
Wilson, longtime gamer, musician, and surfer has engineered a major turnaround with ea announcing record earnings in 2017. Joining me today on bloomberg studio 1. 0, Electronic Arts ceo Andrew Wilson. Lets start at the beginning of your time at ea. In 2013, the company was struggling financially. The consumerist named you the Worst Company of the year two years in a row, but today, it is different. You have reported record profits. What did you do differently . Andrew i have been in the Company Since 2000. In 2013, they made me ceo. Emily i dont think that is quite true. Andrew somewhere in there is some truth. We had struggled. It wasnt because we were a bad company or made bad games. Is we had lost our focus. We said, what is the most important thing . Who facilitates us to do what we love . Thats make gains. Games. That is the player. We started every conversation for the longest time and continuing today is, is this good for the player . The Worst Company in america vote feels like
A year later, we were launching another battlefield game and it was not quite ready. You follow our industry, firstperson shooters always launch in the quarter right before the holidays. We had to make a decision for our players. We could launch it, but the game is not ready. So we held it. That was the big move to hold the biggest game in the biggest quarter and ship it six months later. Once players see that, they recognize we were serious. We have made a series of decisions like that in service of our player. You look after them, they look after you. Emily what are you excited about most this year . Andrew everything we do is fun and exciting, but reaching people through new platforms, mobile, new games, new Business Models, and new geographies. More people play games now than ever before. When you are not building for a hundred million people, but 2. 5 billion people, then you can do impressive and wonderful things. Emily you mention mobile, how much money are you making for mobile
Yeah, frank, sometime overnight vandals climbed a 25 foot tank like this one cutting a couple of locks. They left graffiti behind but no one is certain thats all dont do nothing with your water right now. Dont drink it. Dont touch it. Thats why i came down here. This Water District yard in South San Francisco was busy with activity as people arriving home learned their water could be tainted and came to get bottled water offered for free. This is the first time in 52 years never seen this happen. Vandalism. Thats what i heard. Does that surprise you . Nothing surprises me these days. Customers received phone calls and door to door visits. 000 households are a 1,000 households are affected in the Sunshine Gardens neighborhood. I think there should have been a lot more security up there at the tanks after 9 11. Theyre vulnerable up there by themselves. There should have been cameras or lighting. The vandalism was found this morning. 8foot tall letters, f and m painted on the smaller of t