The man in charge of Electronic Arts continues to surprise with the direction he is setting for the company:

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello revealed a core attribute that the megapublisher is prioritizing in the coming years: Thriftiness. He explained the company has no interest in pursuing more multi-million dollar acquisitions for now — rather, he said the company will focus on better integrating some of the major casual game developers it acquired over the past year, including Playfish, the Facebook game developer EA bought out for $300 million (with $100 million in potential bonuses) last November.

When pressed on whether the publisher was considering purchasing the recently let-go Rock Band developer Harmonix, Riccitiello responded that such an acquisition would “look like I’m doubling down on yesterday.” He added, “I’m sure some smart investor will buy the business feeling that they can catch a falling knife, but more people have been cut trying to catch falling knives than have benefitted from getting the timing exactly right.”

I take this as a sign, personally, that EA is sitting pretty in the gaming industry at this point in time. They have a good battery of studios and developers, many of whom are producing quality games…they would seem to be in a good position.

Not that I don’t think EA would hesitate to add a truly promising studio to its ranks if the opportunity arose, of course. At the same time, backing down from acquisitions for a while kind of relates to other recent policy decisions the company has made: it’s better (and better for them) if they let their current studios continue working on making enjoyable games, rather than deal with the hassle and confusion of the acquisition process.