EA Boss Says PS Brand Still Best

Phew, gaming news is really slowing down now isn’t it? I think all the PR guys are closing down for the holidays and all the developers have switched off their supercomputers and gone to the pub.

Still, you can always rely on John Riccitiello for a bit of fun. He’s the current CEO of EA Games and well known for not hiding his opinion when it comes to… well, when it comes to just about anything he’s asked about. An admirable trait and one which often sees his name appear under quasi-shocking headlines (like the one above).

This time, Riccitiello has let MCV know what he thinks of the two big HD consoles and their brands. Riccitiello, in a refreshing burst of clear-sighted honesty, said:

the Xbox brand, the Microsoft brand, doesn’t carry anywhere near as much sway as the Sony and PlayStation brand do outside the United States.

I think the reality is the international marketplace is just so important and it’s a natural advantage that no matter how good Microsoft is at growing their business, Sony has an almost-impossible-to-supersede head start

Which might be seen as controversial by some and it might fly against the PR spin that both companies would like everyone to believe. He does also mention that PlayStation has got little competition for the connected experience offered by Microsoft’s Live service, even though Home is constantly improving.

It’s a series of well-reasoned points which seems, on the basis of all available evidence, to be the simple truth of the matter. Good eye, Mr Riccitiello.

42 Comments

  1. More exclusive games and content for PS3 please Mr EA.

    • lol its a dream knowing EA they’d be releasing any game on all platforms (although it is rare now)

      • Multiplatform games never utilise the full potential of the PS3 though :/

  2. He’s telling the truth though!

  3. good to hear anther feather in the hat for the ps3

  4. He does have a point, the US market, though a very big one, is the only one in which the Xbox 360 is more popular than the PS3.

    • I don’t have hard figures & things may have changed recently, but in the UK there was about a million more 360s than PS3s

      • But the UK wouldnt be counted on its own, we would be counted as Europe.

      • OK, UK & US, but mainland EU, Japan, Australasia & Latin America sales are much closer or reversed, it’s very even sales wise worldwide.

        Even more important, that’s irrelevant as BRAND is completely different to SALES. Riccitiello is saying the BRAND PlayStation has a much higher brand awareness, nothing at all regarding sales……

  5. The mans right, the PS brand name has been around longer & outside the US is bigger, think UK is more 360 tho? And right again about Sony having to catch up with XBL ….. mmmm …. EA make sense shocker!!

  6. It’s quite refreshing reading an opinion about global branding instead of the American-centric media shovel-fest.

    • As opposed to UK-centric media shovel-fest?

  7. MS has done amazingly well to give Sony a run for their money worldwide & beat them in their homeland. Even more amazing when you take into account the complete lack of reliability. Live & Kinect will stand them in good stead for the next generation as well.

    Sony is a behemoth though, which over the years has snapped up most of the great development studios who make great games, and if they can learn from their failings this generation (over hyping arrogance that under delivered in the first year, general lack of marketing throughout along with the PSN which despite being great is a bit fragmented and not very joined up) they will no doubt knock everyone’s socks off next time around.

    I think 2011 will see some price cuts for the existing generation and the person who moves first will no doubt gain an advantage over the other, although if extrapolated NPD figures are to be believed MS is currently doing great business & has been since the 360s launched, further cemented by Kinect, if they add a pricedrop into the mix then the momentum may be insurmountable for Sony in the US

    • ‘MS has done amazingly well to give Sony a run for their money worldwide & beat them in their homeland’

      No they havnt, PS3 sells more in Japan then 360 surely :|

      World wide yes, homeland, no

      • he means usa not japan!

      • Oh sorry I though Sony where a Japanese company :| meaning their homeland would be….Japan?

      • I would imagine its a reference to Microsoft’s homeland rather than Sony’s.

  8. The press & media in the UK are way too american centred and fail to comprehend the massiveness of PlayStation in places like……um…..South America………..(pretty big place that) and in Japan it is ahead of even Nintendo…..nice to see someone in the states finally stating it in public.

    • Also, NPD figures………….everyone facousses on them, but aren’t they just US figures???!

    • NPD were always USA based. Yes. It’s such a shame we just don’t have globally transparent figures available to us (and the industry) each and every month. Then again, it’d probably cut down on internet arguments by 30% or so and I don’t think we can take that sort of change.

  9. And yet, comparing with last gen, the PS brand has lost a lot of clout, also in EU, but massively in the US.
    IMO, due to late release and a too expensive price.

    And what about nintendo? The “wii” is starting to replace “playstation” as a sinonym of “console”.
    We’ll see how it all ends, but im sure we wont see PS2 dominance of the market again with any console.

    • Absolutely, fella. I still love the Playstation brand but, by god, they’ve lost an incredible amount of market-share from one generation to the next. When the PS4 launches, only then will we see if Sony has learned from these mistakes.

  10. It read to me as thoough that they guy thinks PS is the dominant brand at the moment but MS are catching up. This can only be good news for gamers.

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