EA CEO John Riccitiello has said he’s ‘discouraged’ to see their latest Madden effort, their ”highest-rated and best-marketed” yet, suffer a slow sales start. It’s peddled 1.7m units.
The EA boss says it’s ”encouraging” that the platform holders Sony and Microsoft have price snipped, as ”greater” console sales ”historically translated to stronger” videogame sales.
”It is discouraging that one of our highest-rated and best-marketed Madden titles in years is facing strong headwinds,” emailed the CEO to fellow staff at EA, reports the Wall Street Journal.
”Despite the challenging environment in North America, there are a few important and positive signs in our sector. In recent weeks, both Sony and Microsoft announced significant price cuts for the PlayStation 3 (the new slim) and Xbox 360.”
”Our early read on the market is that consumers are responding and console sales are up significantly, particularly for the Sony platform where EA has historically performed well. This is encouraging, as greater hardware sales have historically translated to stronger software sales.”
”We’re hopeful that the Madden sales trend will strengthen as more consumers go to retail to pick up their lower-priced consoles,” he continued. Riccitiello also pointed out that scores for eleven of their recent titles have clearly shown that quality is up.
”What underpins most everything is the dramatic improvement in our product quality. Back in 2006, we set quality as a top priority and we have increased our average every year since then,” he said, adding, ”I am confident that we will exceed the record we set last year of shipping 14 titles rated 80 or better.” Think EA can beat their record, videogamer?
What EA titles scored 80+ on Metacritic? Madden NFL 10, Fight Night Round 4, EA SPORTS Active, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10, NCAA Football 10, BOOM BLOX Bash Party, The Sims 3, Battlefield 1943, Skate 2, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, and The Beatles: Rock Band.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
