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Riccitiello: Wii Decline Buzz Won't Impact EA
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC]
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December 3, 2009
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Declining Wii console sales and a softening third-party software market will not have much of an impact on Electronic Arts, says CEO John Riccitiello, who points out EA is the number two publisher on the console after Nintendo itself.
"I think there's no doubt that [Nintendo] enjoyed spectacular success a year ago and it's been softer since then," he tells Gamasutra.
"[The Wii is] clearly not going to sell as many units this year as it did last year," he says, adding that EA looks at marketshare as an important metric: "We have a low-20 [percent] share on the Xbox 360, a high 20 [percent] share on the PS3, and a 19-20 [percent] share on the Wii."
"I'm indifferent as to what platform performs [well]," he says. "I'd like them all to... but if one goes up and the other goes down, we make money," says Riccitiello. "I'm not like Activision, without a Wii business, or like Ubisoft with a heavy focus on the [Nintendo] platforms. It's not that important."
Beyond the fact that most publishers have a multiplatform focus, one thing that may insulate game companies from too much downside should the Wii continue softening is the diversity of the industry landscape, suggests Riccitiello.
"The bigger issue that we've got is that at this point in the cycle, direct-to-consumer has gone from 5 percent [a few years ago] -- this year it's 45 percent, next year it will be more than half," he says. "Individual consoles have become only part of a puzzle."
"One platform going down and another platform going up is more relevant to us than saying, for example, Sony versus Motorola phones, but it is one of a bunch of pieces of hardware," he adds.
"The number one gaming platform in the world is PC and that's booming," concludes the CEO, pointing to the growth of gameplay online and on social networks.
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Growing awareness in the gaming industry of the splintering of gamer preferences is what may be why EA is talking about spreading out their console development and emphasizing PC game development again. There is good potential for profit in developing lower-cost games for niche markets if the social networks behind those niches create buzz for those targeted games. Companies like EA can make a lot more money in direct-to-consumer transactions, such as downloadable games and micro-transactions, since there is less overhead. And with the size of the existing PC game market larger than that of the combined last-gen and current-gen consoles combined, one can have a lower percentage of share and still make money.
So its a good news for apple lovers.
Wii is good as well but god knows what apple is going to come up with as they have hired world's best programers.
So its a good news for apple lovers.
Wii is good as well but god knows what apple is going to come up with as they have hired world's best programers.
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wii-is-confounding-to-people-says-eas-ricciti
ello/
That interview, like this one, is also incomplete. I get the feeling that there was some kind of media event, and the journalists who were there do not want to (or are not allowed to?) print the complete transcript...? The complete transcript would be great, as there seems to be quite a bit of nuance to his remarks about various topics.
One quote of note: ""I think the Wii is confounding to people because it's so darn big and successful. Even this year, what most people perceive as a down year, they're going to sell just in the Western markets somewhere in the mid-teens of millions of hardware units, which is a blow-away success for a console. And yet it's lower than they (and we) originally thought. But that's a little bit like saying they won the Super Bowl by a smaller point spread."