Speaking to IGN, EA’s COO John Schappert has expressed his enthusiasm for Sony’s PlayStation platform. “We’re platform agnostic,” he said. “We sell more software on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 than anybody. That being said, we partnered with Sony on the press conference; we were on their stage and got to announce some things.”
I wouldn’t read too much into what we’re showing the demos on,” he said, pouring water on some still-smouldering rumours relating to silly exclusives, although the special edition Dead Space 2 will feature a lovely ball of Move goodness built in for use with the bundled Dead Space Extraction remake. “But I will tell you,” he continued, “in the marketplace, the PlayStation 3 is doing incredibly well.”
“Since Sony changed the PS3 form factor, rolled out the Kevin Butler marketing campaign, and launched some great content, the box is on fire,” he said, using a rather headline baiting hyperbole. “Now the problem is you haven’t been able to find it at retail, it’s been out of stock. But I think they’ll fix that soon,” his gushing continued.
“We have high hopes on the PlayStation 3 this year. Again, we like them all, but PlayStation 3 is doing very strong right now,” he added.
“It was a great opportunity to work with Sony on genres that they were very interested in promoting for the PlayStation 3,” Schappert said, referring to the remastered version of Medal of Honor: Frontline that’ll ship with the special edition PS3 version of the new game. “We were able to make use of the Blu-ray disc with the larger storage space and add additional content on the disc without sacrificing anything from the core game.”
“We partner with Microsoft on a ton of products, but those are just two good opportunities we had with Sony that we wanted to highlight.”
bajere
“We were able to make use of the Blu-ray disc with the larger storage space and add additional content on the disc without sacrificing anything from the core game.” – This is what i get disappointed with when i play a game that i can see room for expansion but they wont as the 360 DVD can cope with it! Imagen more tracks on your fav racer, or extra levels on COD, more internal spaces/cars/people on GTA:IV ect ect. really hoped the new 360 would of had a BlueRay in it, shame it didn’t.
Cjdamon042
If the new 360 included a Blu-ray drive, then those with the old 360s wouldn’t be able to play the games that used Blu-ray discs, so of course it doesn’t have one.
bajere
i was thinking of a slow roll out, all new 360’s have BR’s then the older ones can get upgraded as they fail. Port the PS3 version of games onto 360 and strip out content graphics ect as needed. So, PS3/360.2/PC(multi-disk install maybe), then PC/360, then finally wii. Or just start spreading games onto multiple disks for 360,ala Final Fantasy, until the main 360 market has been upgraded to BR. It looks like kenect is going casual/shovel, so its a good excuse to release a ‘hardercore’ console.lol
Anyways, it probably way to much work for dev’s, but just something i would feel would benefit us.
andytorr
But they could never say for sure that nobody is using the old console still… and if they went on to make all games on blu-ray, they would make a lot of enemies. It’s just not possible. They’ve already make big mistakes in the past by releasing games that NEED a hard drive to play properly, or you’re not getting your money’s worth (Forza 3). That didn’t go down very well with a lot of owners.
jayjay119
I doubt 360 would ever incorporate Blu ray just by principal. Microsoft adamantly backed the HD-DVD and critisiezed Blu Ray. Add in that it is a trademark Sony product it just seems a no go for them.
cc_star
Blu-ray is owned by the Blu-ray Association, a group of 20 companies
Microsoft could buy their way into the group and then they wouldn’t have to licence the technology (in fact they would share in the revenues of other companies who licence it)
cc_star
Making more levels, tracks, etc costs money but does it lead to extra sales?
bajere
i would say yes. not always more sales, but more profit as its value for money… using GT5 as an example, if they came out and said the game was going to cost £50 instead of £40, i don’t think people would begrudge them to-much as the game is packed with features and cars. But if the game came around with less cars and less features then people would be pissed at them, like the MW2 arguments a few months ago.
I believe in “you get what you pay for”, “buy cheep, buy twice”. that sort of thing. So my comments above most likely stem from that i guess. I feel if its there, use it. the PS3 has BluRay, so use it. It has great processing power, use it. It can produce great games (as shown by the exclusives), do it. Then cut things, tone things down for the other platforms. Exactly the same as devs do now, from PS3/360 to wii, but go PS3 to 360 to wii.
newsky87
Ah, John Schappert, seems like only last year he was telling us how great Xbox’s were… Oh wait, it was only last year! Got to love that Sony press conference, John Schappert and Gabe Newell both claiming their games will be best on PS3!
Of course Microsoft seem to be cuddling up with Activision…
ericzap
Let ’em
ericzap
Let ’em.
Activision has Tony Hawk, EA has Skate.
Activision has COD, EA has Medal of Honor and BBC.
Activision has Guitar Hero, EA has Rock Band.
EA has most sport games on lock.
In theory, even a complete boycott of all Activision products would not affect my gaming habits in the least. I only play COD every now and then, but I could drop that pretty easily.
SleepMachine
wait… Dead space 2 has move support?! I thought that was only for Dead Space Extraction??
retro_
I would rather be with EA than Activision right now, Good move Sony!
cc_star
EA do <3 PlayStation
... When it suits them, pretty sure that Dead Space: Extraction won't be on the 360 because it would need to be re-written for Kinect whereas the Move version is pretty much a HD-Remix of the Wii version.
EA have a long standing marketing relationship with Sony, right back to the advertising of FIFA/Madden & Mirrors Edge on the console
I'd swap all of the marketing arrangements in the world in a heartbeat for what EA give Microsoft, through Mass Effect and the new Crytek 360 exclusive Codename: Kingdoms, in addition there is also the type of marketing arrangements for select titles, most notably with Rockband etc.
So yes, EA loves PlayStation, but they also love the 360 equally (if not slightly more)
newsky87
The 360 Crytek game is nothing to do with EA. Microsoft signed Crytek to develop it and MS Game Studios will publish it, like they did with Epic and Gears of War. Crytek only work with EA Partners for the Crysis franchise. I know I’m being picky, and your point about swapping some marketing gimmicks for a whole new game still stands. Though I still think Mass Effect may show up on PS3 eventually, I mean if Portal 2 is coming to PS3 anything is possible!
jayjay119
This is a big change in attitude for a company who only 12(ish) months ago were threatening to pull out of developing for the machine. Let’s see how many other devs who ‘hate’ PS3 decide to come out of the closet and announce their sony love now that it is fast surpassing the 360 in terms of cost and power.
Spence1115
Wasn’t that Activision?
ericzap
Yeah I believe it was.
Charmed_Fanatic
Yay welcome EA ;-)
Quinlank
Do EA still make more money off the PS3 than the 360? I remember reading articles on that last year, but I don’t know if it’s still the case. Considering PS3’s gains over the last year though it wouldn’t surprise me.
Smart move favouring the PS3 with more content though if Batman Arkham Asylum from Eidos is any indicator(Sold better on PS3). Be interesting to see if it pays off, though I guess it will depend on the pricing of the limited editions with the exclusive content, and it’s worth keeping in mind that Dead Space Extraction will be all but worthless without a Move to play it with, and by the time it comes out, hardly anyone is going to have one of THOSE, are they? Medal of Honour seems a pretty safe bet though, but we’ll see.