EA’s Moore: Microsoft And Sony Have Been Very Aggressive With EA

Peter Moore’s looking forward to the next console generation, but he still needs to know when it’s due.

Peter Moore, in a talk with Games Industry, said that both big console makers had “been very aggressive with us,” courting EA for games, but added that it was because “we’re a very powerful publisher, obviously, that has the ability to deliver great content … and they want to make sure they get that.” It’s getting closer and closer to November, when we finally see how the Xbox One and PS4 will fare out in the wild, and EA’s keen to be on the winning team. But it doesn’t want to be seen to be favoring one over the other either, at least not now, so Moore was quick to say that – while at the moment EA’s touting its Xbox One titles – the PS4 partnership opportunities were things that “maybe we should be talking more about.” Moore certainly wasn’t about to say that one console’s sales were going to be better than another’s; he chose the politic path, and said he saw a lot of talk from gamers who were going to get both.

The problem isn’t who will win – if there’s a winner at all – in the sales wars, at least not from Moore’s perspective. The problem is when this will all happen. Even EA doesn’t quite know – though the situation’s clearer than it was – and that’s a problem when you’re dealing with the logistics of delivering umpteen millions of boxes. “Dates, countries, we need quantities,” says Moore. “A company like ourselves we need to figure out where the numbers are going.” It doesn’t help that both consoles will be launching simultaneously, or as near to it as makes no difference. That splits resources, from EA’s perspective, as everything’s hitting shelves at the same time; and while all this is going on it still has to consider current generation releases. “So things that gamers don’t have to worry about but we have to worry about is getting the flow of manufacturing right, getting the quantities right, making sure everything is at retail,” Moore points out. “Microsoft needs to cough up the date.”

Now EA just needs to deliver the games. It can see the finish line, and it’s running as fast as it can. It might be panic mode, it might be high stress time, but EA’s used to that. “Yeah, it’s head down and go time now,” says Moore. “We have to deliver.”

Source: GI.biz