Electronic Arts is not hitting home runs these days. The console market is a complicated one, but by many accounts Sony loses money on every Playstation 3 they sell and are not yet making up the money on the software side. The big hit games like Call of Duty are not from either EA or Sony.
To me, this represents a parable of sorts for the industry — and it is mostly based on my own opinion and experiences so bear with me.
Nintendo has captured imaginations with their Wii concept. It is the “active” video game console and Wii Fitness being a bestseller proves that the vast majority of people who bought the Wii are not typical couch potatoes. If anything, the Wii introduced a whole new species: the couch string bean.
Microsoft apparently makes money on their X-Box even at a lower price point than Playstation — and that console seems to have more big selling titles.
To me this adds up to the following regurgitated parable: software is king and hardware sometimes has to be treated as a loss leader. I have heard that (if you spin the numbers a certain way) Playstation outsells X-Box these days, but they will only start to make money when the exclusives like Little Big Planet and the Resistance series become “must have” titles — and lets not forget that Sony bet on Blu-Ray and Microsoft bet on the “other” (now dead) HD disc format. On the other hand: come up with something unique and innovative (like Nintendo did) and you’re no longer competing head to head.
Sadly (because it seems to be forgotten far too often) the other part of the parable is: Quality still matters above all else.
Microsoft actually started losing ground with their “red ring of death” quality issues on the XBox. EA has not had a really high quality title since The Sims. Spore and its copy-protection fiasco was a joke (even though it was a hit by normal standards). NBA Live 08 is a buggy and almost unplayable console title. The Madden football series has stagnated and is no longer sold on the PC where it represented a very rich playing experience. EA produces software and should be king… but their crown is so badly tarnished I find they look more like the court jester these days.
The tough economy notwithstanding, it will be interesting to see how things went this holiday season for the game industry.