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.
gazzagb
EA does seem to be going more and more pro-PS3, I remember at E3 everything was demo’d on PS3’s whereas most other Publishers & Devs used 360’s.
I agree with him though that MS are only really dominating in the US. It think its pretty even in the UK, and obviously Nintendo and Sony rule Japan.
Darth Newdar
I agree with him. The knowledge of the PlayStation brand among non-gamers is far greater than that of the Xbox brand.
Hamzz
Sony really need to get their heads down next year and market the Ps3 like hell, I’ve only seen around 2/ 3 Move adverts on Tv, I saw 2 Kinect adverts in one break! its just shows how much Microsoft are pushing it!
Start focusing on on your Ps3 sony not you’re vaio laptops and bravia Tvs!
jayjay119
advertising like that isn’t a good thing, that’s what MS don;t understand you can push something too much. I saw 5 TV ads for the 360 in one ad break in the run up to xmas last year, and it just made me never want to see it again. Sony isn’t doing badly at all considering they don’t throw as much money at publicity as MS do.
gideon1451
I think the PS2 is a major factor here.
3shirts
I agree. If the PS2 hadn’t been such an absolute beast, demolishing all in it’s path and swallowing every good exclusive going, Sony would have really struggled to keep up with the 360.
I know personally the PS2 was the main thing that pushed me towards the PS3 and if it hadn’t been for that, I might well have gone for Microsoft instead.
colmshan1990
Yup.
I couldn’t justify getting a 360 over a PS3 after the many happy experiences I had with the PS2.
It had to be the next Playstation, just as soon as I could afford it.
jayjay119
Is this the same EA that only a year or two ago was threatening abandoning suport for PS3? Hipocrites.
JesseDeya
No, that was Bobby Nodick the CEO of Activision who as we all know, is a c*#t.
skibadee
over 20 exclusives next year as well.
nichotshoter
the playstation could be in first,second, or third dont really care what i do care about is the games that are coming and i have to say im happy with the line up the playstation has. if it was the other way round and the 360 is the one with the exclusives coming in i would be more happy with the xbox. but it seems like microsoft dropped the ball in 2011. they dont have one exclusive that interest me. but one has to look on it another way it does seem like their focusing on something else either kinect or a new xbox.
Charmed_Fanatic
Nice to hear :)
GTRsannin
I would still have bought a PS3 even if it didn’t get as many exclusives PlayStation has been my gaming devise of choice since PS1 and i bet it will be for a long time to come it’s good to see that at least one US developer has started seeing that there is a whole world out there
Quinlank
Sssssh, we don’t like Xbox’s performance outside the US being acknowledged or discussed thanks!
Or so would seem to be the case on most media sites.
The US may be the biggest gaming territory, but it is still only one of many. Microsoft’s “lead”(If you can call a distant second any kind of lead) seems to be far more tenuous than popular spin would like to pretend.
JesseDeya
How very true. It was even worse in the early days! Go back and look at articles from 2007 where a lot of US gaming sites were calling the PS3 a failure, and popular (US) opinion is that Sony were going to have to pull out. Such a joke considering that world wide it was outselling or matching the Xbox.