EA bet big on the Xbox One. They bet very big on it, and honestly, considering the sales performance of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the general brand perceptions of both consoles among the mainstream masses, and of course, the financial strength of Microsoft and financial weakness of Sony, it wasn’t hard to see why they, along with so many others, thought that the Xbox One would be the leading console of this generation.
That didn’t happen, and in hindsight, that caught EA on the wrong foot, with all their Xbox One exclusivity deals (games such as Plants vs Zombies 2 and Titanfall, content such as FIFA Ultimate Team players in the FIFA games), when the PlayStation 4 started clowning the Xbox One in sales. Over time, the industry has gradually started to prioritize Sony’s console in their development, but EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen reckons that a series of aggressive moves by Microsoft, which include price cuts, bundles, and more, are accelerating Xbox One sales to the point that it is ‘quickly catching up’ to PS4.
“Clearly Sony has jumped out to a lead with a great console and I think a great pricing strategy,” Jorgensen said at the UBS Global Technology Conference. But, he added, “Microsoft is catching up quickly”.
“Pricing actions that are taking place, particularly within this Christmas season, driven by Microsoft around reductions plus a lot of bundled software, I think will continue to help pull the consumer into the new consoles.”
Well, if price and bundling is what wins you the war, I expect the Wii U to be the top console this season.
That said, Sony’s lead isn’t unsurmountable- the Xbox One is at nearly 10 million units shipped worldwide, the PS4 is at 13.5 million units (both of them are far ahead of Nintendo’s 7.2 million for the Wii U).
But hey, EA, if you’re so convinced about the Xbox One… I suppose we’ll soon be seeing Titanfall 2 exclusive to the Xbox One, right?
