Microsoft has done a great job of building the Xbox brand says EA’s John Riccitiello, but Sony is currently much stronger internationally.
As the gap between the Xbox 360 and PS3 sales narrows, EA CEO Riccitiello has weighed in on which console he thinks will emerge victorious – although likely still in the shadow of the Wii. In his opinion, the PS3 will likely win out, not because it’s better, but because it has greater brand recognition.
He said that the consoles had their differences, and that both platform holders were very good at using their unique selling points, like Blu-Ray or Xbox Live. He said that Sony had done especially well in tightening up and refocusing its marketing campaign, but added that you couldn’t point at either company and really say that it had dropped the ball.
Riccitiello praised Microsoft for getting the Xbox brand to the point it had, saying that it had made a lot of smart moves, and that Xbox Live was the gold standard for online gaming services. The big problem that Microsoft faced, he said, was that the PlayStation brand was much stronger internationally than the Xbox, and that gave Sony a head start that he thought might be insurmountable.
Of course, from EA’s point of view, the best thing would be if both consoles sell by the boatload, as that means a much bigger install base for the publisher’s multiplatform titles, but you only need to look at the difficulty that Microsoft has selling the Xbox 360 in Japan to realize what Riccitiello is saying makes a lot of sense.
Source: Industry Gamers
