EA takes crazy pills, ignores market trends
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 10:46am by Jack
EA is apparently throwing us all a curve this morning, given the fact that executives only recently divided up the company and created a dedicated “casual games” division.
Several sources are reporting that an Electronic Arts representative has confirmed that its Xbox 360 games take priority over other systems as multi-platform titles near completion.
The representative allegedly added that EA regularly shifts its workforce to concentrate on getting Xbox 360 versions shipped first due to the consoles larger user base when compared to the PS3 and Wii.
Bwah?! It’s not biased in the least to say that EA is brain dead if they think they can ignore all the Wii owners out there today. It’s a number that will soon be more than the purported “larger user base” of the Xbox 360. For all intents and purposes the number is essentially equal already.
Part of me thinks this was lost in translation. What I think EA really said is it will continue to focus on Xbox 360 first, and PS3 second — for a variety of money-related reasons.
Makes me wonder if GamePro’s “several sources” were in fact Xbox fanboys on the Major Nelson official forums.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:30 am
Well, the facts still are:
a) Xbox 360 owners still outnumber Wii owners, although I don’t think that is really that important, and
b) Wii remote implementation in multiplatform games always will have to take a little longer to develop and test, since it is an exclusive interface.
It makes perfect sense to me…
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
InvisibleMan, the “sources” are claiming that staff are taken off the Wii title to work on the 360 titles, not that they are simply getting the 360 titles out first. So, if the Wii titles really do take longer to develop, this will cause even further delays meaning 360 titles would be ready well in advance of Wii titles.
As for your first point, you are way off target. As the article says, the numbers at the moment are as good as equal and, judging by trends, Wii ownership is set to massively outstrip 360 ownership, and that means the numbers really are important. If they put more effort into the second-placed system (what the 360 will almost certainly be) they will be inconveniencing and alienating the largest portion of the customer base - hardly makes good business sense to me.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
On the other hand, when your company has spent the past 15 years designing the same old games over and over, you benefit from the status quo not being broken. Wii breaks the status quo and the 360 doesn’t. They can hedge their bets with the “casual games division” as they call it, but I suspect EA would much rather put the bulk of its support behind the status-quo-preserving competitor who at least still has a chance.
But we’re reading a lot into what may have been a misunderstanding or mistranslation, if anyone actually made the statement at all.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
The stupidest thing is how EA recently acknowledged this was happening and that they were completely wrong in a major stockholder meeting resulting in lowered earnings, but subsequently went about announcing several more PS3/360 exclusive games (including a marvel fighting game - go figure). They then announced the “Wii exclusive” Boogie was coming to PS2 (pretty much the only exclusive game they had).
I mean, Rock Band has just been confirmed for PS2 but still not Wii.
WTF?
Reggie said it: Innovate or die!
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:10 pm
elmer, it’s true. It’s not fanboysih at all to say if you, as a developer, ignore the 10+ million people who now own a Wii, you will lose money and possibly your business.
The Wii will surpass the 360 next month as the most popular console. It did this in less than a year. Fact and fact. There are no sane arguments out there (other than “can it last!?”) that point to this momentum slowing in the slightest.
Get with it, industry.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
You have to take into account the attach rate for the consoles, not just the installed base numbers. I know that the number of software titles a user purchases for the 360 is very high (can’t remember the number). I do recall it was stated to be 3 - 5x that of the Wii (I remember reading this around the time of E3, but can’t recall the source).
So from a publishers standpoint, the installed base is only part of the story. It’s possible that the Wii, with the lower attach rate, would have to have an installed base twice as big as the 360 to make the numbers sway definitively in their favor.
Just a thought.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
For some reason i do think those sources are 360 “fanboys”.
The only reason this might be true is if EA is focusing solely on the US market (which from a business point of view would be plain stupid) as the 360 is still ahead of the Wii here. There is still several reasons why that’d be wrong:
1. In the US, Wii is catching up to the 360 fast.
2. worldwide Wii vs 360 is equal, and at current rate, and the Wii will surpass 360 by next month.
That’s why i think this is fake.
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
OFFICIAL! (well, vgcharts official anyway).
Wii has surpassed 360!!!
http://www.vgchartz.com/
btw, the high attatch ratio early in a console’s life is generally a bad sign, indicating either stagnating hardware sales, or a hardcore audience or both. It’s problematic for 360 because it means there’s a real potential that install base will grow very slowly. A medium range attatch ratio (as per Wii) this early in its life is more healthy indicating that consoles are being bought at a very high rate. Obviously selling 50 games to each of 100 million customers is desirable, but unlikely and certainly not what’s happening with 360.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Rage Against the Machine album cover!