I think I remember John promising not to repeat the Spore DRM debacle in one of those townhall meetings. He was there to change the EA-is-the-devil's-armpit image and the SimCity PR disaster is just another example of his failure.
Also, his worst nightmare was having another one of those ea-spouse letter pop out; not dissimilar from the anonymous self-bashing letter we saw last week.
I guess he's Being Accountable for his failed promises.
From what most game devs seem to say, most of the industry revolves around finding naive young developers who learned to program because they loved video games, hiring them on salary without explaining that they will work 80-100 hours per week (or promising overtime that you never intend to pay), and then spending the duration of the project reminding them how worthless they are and that there are a dozen CS grads who would love to take their places. Finally, having lost the will to live, they quit the business and settle down into nice, stress-free .NET jobs, where they will spend the next several years trying to regain faith in humanity.
Also, his worst nightmare was having another one of those ea-spouse letter pop out; not dissimilar from the anonymous self-bashing letter we saw last week.
I guess he's Being Accountable for his failed promises.