In a recent interview, Electronic Arts' Peter Moore said he was excited for the upcoming holiday season and the continuing competition between Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U.
"You could argue maybe the tables have been somewhat turned in this generation, but I think it's going to be a great fight in the holiday. And as a third-party publisher, we sit right in the sweet spot," Moore, the chief operating officer, said in an interview with Games Industry International. "Consumers love it as well, and it's good for the industry."
"You need powerful companies like Sony and Microsoft to be battling out with each other because it drives investment in their platforms. It drives competition. You want to see Nintendo come back with the Wii U. All in all, it becomes healthy for gamers, for the environment. When you have a runaway winner, that actually has a reverse effect," he continued.
In the first six months since the new video game consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, launched in November 2013, Sony took the lead in worldwide sales. Official sales figures put PlayStaton 4 at 7 million sold worldwide and Xbox One at 5 million sold worldwide. The $399 price for the PS4 compared with the $499 price for the Xbox One is seen as a significant factor in Sony's lead. In May, Microsoft announced the Kinect microphone and motion contol camera unit would no longer be required for the Xbox's operation, and on June 9 Microsoft began sales of an Xbox One without the Kinect for only $399. Nintendo's Wii U was released a year prior to its competitors in November 2012 and has reached 6 million units sold globally.
And what about the overall health of the game industry in the tumultuous transition between generations? As one of the largest third-party publishers in the industry, EA is in a position to track the well-being of the video game market.
"The last time we looked, we were up 127 percent on hardware vs. the previous generation, same month after launch," Moore said in the interview. "So all indications are it's been a strong start. If you remember this time last year, we were sweating whether these things would fly, right? And to both Sony and Microsoft's credit coming out of E3 last year, I think they convinced us all they would, and now they're certainly proving it."
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo held in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, the console-makers and third-party publishers revealed more about games coming this year and next, including a selection of new game announcements.
