EA’s CEO defends video game industry on violence issue

During the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention held September 14, 2007, Electronic Arts’ chief executive officer, John Riccitiello, stood up for the gaming industry after ITV’s executive chairman, Michael Grade, attacked the industry calling it a “moral vacuum.”

“Those acts of violence [shown in games] exist in a moral vacuum, whereas in films and television, it is set in a moral context, with real consequences, such as pain,” argued Grade.

Riccitiello, who attended the conference as a guest speaker, returned the volley by claiming that…