EA Underwhelmed by PSP
David Gardner, VP and COO of EA worldwide studios, had some harsh words for Sony today. With Sony’s full attention seemingly on the PS3, he thinks they really ought to look at their handheld once in a while. With the PSP falling behind the DS in all three major regions of the world, Gardner says Sony should be acting now. “I donÂ’t think Sony can afford to sit back, I think they still have things they can do with the price and performance of the machine – things that they need to address.”
He is likely not very happy with software sales either. The July NPD numbers show that the DS had twelve games that sold over 30,000 copies each while the PSP only had six. Not only that, but none of the PSP games sold over 50,000 while five of the DS games were between 50,000 and 300,000. Maybe everyone is too busy with homebrew? He’s probably at least happy that the best-selling PSP game last month was NCAA Football 07, but obviously he expected higher numbers. Especially considering the PS2 and 360 versions of the game were the best-selling pieces of software last month.
“There’s no doubt that EA has historically bet more on PSP. I think we were excited by the technology, but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun. We must never forget that what we need to focus on is fun and so EA is putting more effort behind DS games – and creative ones that really take advantage of the hardware.” ends Gardner.
Via MCV
David Gardner, VP and COO of EA worldwide studios, had some harsh words for Sony today. With Sony’s full attention seemingly on the PS3, he thinks they really ought to look at their handheld once in a while. With the PSP falling behind the DS in all three major regions of the world, Gardner says Sony should be acting now. “I donÂ’t think Sony can afford to sit back, I think they still have things they can do with the price and performance of the machine – things that they need to address.”
He is likely not very happy with software sales either. The July NPD numbers show that the DS had twelve games that sold over 30,000 copies each while the PSP only had six. Not only that, but none of the PSP games sold over 50,000 while five of the DS games were between 50,000 and 300,000. Maybe everyone is too busy with homebrew? He’s probably at least happy that the best-selling PSP game last month was NCAA Football 07, but obviously he expected higher numbers. Especially considering the PS2 and 360 versions of the game were the best-selling pieces of software last month.
“There’s no doubt that EA has historically bet more on PSP. I think we were excited by the technology, but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun. We must never forget that what we need to focus on is fun and so EA is putting more effort behind DS games – and creative ones that really take advantage of the hardware.” ends Gardner.
Via MCV