The critically-acclaimed EA Wii game “Boom Blox” is not a failure commercially, EA CEO John Riccitiello told me yesterday during an interview in his company’s E3 booth regarding the state of the games publisher. Instead, it’s a success with Pink Floyd potential. And he’d even like to do a sequel.
Here’s our chat about that topic. The rest of my E3 interview with him will run next week.
MTV Multiplayer: “Boom Blox” is a lot of people’s favorite Wii game so far. But a lot of those same people have been looking at the sales figures, seeing that only 60,000 copies were sold in the first month, and I need to know what you were expecting in terms of performance for “Boom Blox.” Are you as worried or panicked as some of these fans are about what “Boom Blox”’s success — or lack thereof — means?
John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts: First off, we had a week’s sales with no advertising. Last time I checked MTV wasn’t a financial network, but .. it met our expectations. “Boom Blox” was a competent seller in the month it was introduced and only had a week of sales without advertising. So it’s doing actually quite well. We haven’t announced a sequel, but I would tell you that I certainly am curious [about doing one]. It’s a hit title.
Multiplayer: So everything you guys were doing in terms of making “Boom Blox” — making an original game for the Wii — is still something you guys feel will work? This is not a sign to EA that “Boom Blox” wasn’t the right direction?
Riccitiello: Given that you come from a music network, I think “Boom Blox” is going to be the “Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’” for games. It’s going to last a long time. I think it’s going to be a favorite for a long time. If you haven’t picked it up there’s really nothing like it out there… frankly I’m addicted to it. My kids are into it. It’s a great title.

We haven’t heard anything from Electronic Arts about “The Godfather 2″ video game since it was quietly confirmed during a shareholder meeting last summer.

Rockstar’s Dan Houser said
Analysts look at bottom lines. They make recommendations for people to make money. Cynically, you’d think an analyst would recommend sequels, annualization, keeping the talent making them behind the scenes.
The past few days have not been the relaxing post-GDC weekend hoped for by the Multiplayer crew. Thanks, Electronic Arts!
In a conference call to further detail
Earlier today, Electronic Arts revealed that 
As part of its public announcement to purchase Take-Two Interactive today, game publisher Electronic Arts has launched a website that addresses the possible fates of the most prominent parts of Take-Two’s business. You can read the lengthy EA-to-EA interview at
[UPDATED with comment from Take-Two]