EA's CEO John Riccitiello admits that releasing the same few franchises considerably thinned the company's portfolio...

Most of us remember those recent years when Electronic Arts was at the top. By the middle of the last decade, the house of Fifa and Need For Speed was virtually printing money thanks to its established IP simultaneous with a cry from gamers lamenting what they saw as low-quality output.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, the company's current CEO John Riccitiello admitted that the strategy of relying on the same franchises played its part in knocking EA down a few pegs.

"If you go back seven years, we were the leader. And we dropped the ball. Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn't really have an answer for the rise of digital... Need For Speed ended up flat on its back. That annual sequel thing got to us. That was a very tough business run. We just didn't have the portfolio."

At the same conference, Riccitiello stated that he believes the Dead Space franchise will come into its own commercially when the company releases Dead Space 3.