April fools: EA doesn’t appoint Adam Boyes to CEO

About 15 minutes before midnight Eastern time, I received an email claiming that Electronic Arts appointed Sony’s current head of publisher relations, Adam Boyes, to chief executive officer. That information is incorrect. As I was publishing, I contacted EA by phone and by mail, but hadn’t received a response.

Updated @ 9:15 p.m. Pacific

This was clearly an attempt at an April Fools’ joke, and I fell for it. I apologize for the mistake.

I am not EA's new CEO. It is, however, April 1st on the East Coast.

— Adam Boyes (@amboyes) April 1, 2013

Here is the original text of the story:

Publisher Electronic Arts has a new chief executive officer.

The company announced late on Sunday night that it is bringing in Adam Boyes, formerly vice president of publisher relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, to run its operations as CEO.

Boyes worked at EA many years earlier as a tester before moving on to a producer role at Capcom. He later started his own consulting company before moving on to work with Sony.

“We’re happy to have Adam back in the fold as EA’s new CEO,” EA executive chairman Larry Probst said in a statement. “His skill and vision as an executive and his experience in our industry have earned him the respect of our employees and shareholders.”

Boyes represents an opportunity for EA to lay out a fresh new vision for antsy shareholders who weren’t happy with the publisher’s performance under previous CEO John Riccitiello.

“Leading EA has always been my dream job and I am truly honored that Larry and the Board have given me this opportunity,” said Boyes. “This is an extremely well-run company driven by outstanding studio and publishing teams. They’ve also made strategic investments in new platforms and markets that will help extend EA’s industry leadership in the years ahead.”