In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Electronic Art's recently appointed CEO, John Riccitiello has said that videogames companies are 'boring people to death' with re-hashed sequels and lack of innovation in their titles.

Electronic Arts themselves are one of the biggest culprits of the 'sequel syndrome' with only minor improvements in game play and graphics in many of their re-hashed titles, but Riccitiello does believe that EA need to change their attitude as well and is intent on driving the company forward to ensure that the company are at the forefront of innovation, even if jobs need to be cut to achieve this goal.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat. There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before," Riccitiello said"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," he continued.

Riccitiello believes that more attention needs to be paid to the casual gaming audience otherwise the games industry could lose out as a whole.

Many sequels, such as Need for Speed and The Sims are guaranteed to make money for the companies involved as they often only need make small changes to the game rather than having to fork out millions on the development of a brand new IP. It remains to be seen whether companies will heed the warning from EA's CEO, but we'll certainly be waiting with baited breath to see the influx of brand new titles from the company.