EA gambled big on PS3; now playing catch-up on Wii
Information Arbitrage has a LONG article up, collecting statements from various sources at various points in time, looking at how EA put big money on the PS3 early on, and how they’re now starting to realize that their strategy is costing the company. Check out a little excerpt below, Information Arbitrage’s understanding of a previous EA statement:
Translation: “We screwed up our handicapping in the console wars and are working like hell to catch up given the wild (and unexpected) success of the Wii. Remember, guys, we bought that studio in Utah specifically devoted to developing games for the Wii, we are keeping up the pressure to catch up with Ubisoft. And hey, while we missed the boat early we are getting on now. After all, we are EA.”
It’s a long read, but a good one, if you really want to get an idea of how big of a mistake EA made by betting heavily on a single console other than the Wii. (To be fair, the Wii hasn’t yet proved that it can last without long-term software support, it’s just that early sales are leading developers to question their decisions to put a handful of games on the Wii and over twenty games on other consoles)
