Electronic Arts’ Vice President and General Manage for UK, Keith Ramsdale, has gone on record to suggest that owners of Sony’s PlayStation 3 console are intent on waiting for quality software to arrive, but forecast a prosperous future for the next-generation videogames machine.
"If you look at FIFA 08, on its first weekend the PS3 numbers were 75 per cent of the Xbox 360 numbers, despite the 360 having a massively higher install base”, Ramsdale told Gamesindustry.biz this week.
"That’s not that the 360 has underperformed, not for a moment. That’s because the appetite for a quality game on the PS3 is there and maybe FIFA is the first game to come and show where the quality is."
"I think PS3 consumers are waiting for the right game and they want to see the quality."
Ramsdale also observed the recent price cut, recognising it as a critical decision in Sony’s plans for the console, adding, "Of course the hardware sales increased dramatically when the price cut happened and that’s absolutely part of it. Ray Maguire said himself that they were planning that, it was part of their strategy and I absolutely understand that.
"But what I would say is that the software sales against a hardware install base on a good game like FIFA – the PS3 outpunches its weight in attachment to the hardware. So now the price drop has happened, the hardware is going to grow, and we’re in for a great time."