John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, tells the Wall Street Journal that the game industry lacks innovation and creative gaming. Odd that EA is known for their lack of innovation and creative gaming with yearly roster updates to their sports games, SimCity, Metal of Honor, Battlefield and more.

Now, it seems, he’s turning against that which he helped invent: a re-hash of games. Not every EA game is a complete series addition, they do have a few new titles but that may be part of his initiative to re-vitalize an industry of remakes and reuses.

Although many games in a series incrementally add-on to their past successes, sometimes its nice to see something new arrive. Perhaps a new franchise or game title that doesn’t relate to anything of its past.

The whipping post of the misguided, EA certainly has the portfolio to back up the tough talk. While they’ll never stop the Madden mobile (and why should they?), titles like Boom Boom Rocket, MySims, Skate, Rock Band and Army of Two are fine examples of the direction Riccitiello speaks of.

Lately we’ve heard EA talk about their “casual games division” which will help build new innovative titles for consoles like the Wii. Maybe this is exactly what he’s talking about: creating a casual gaming market and exploring the possibilities of creative short-series games.

We don’t all need 40-hour epic games with a USD $59.99 price tag.

(Thanks, Kotaku)