The majority of Americans may own an Xbox 360, but EA Games CEO John Riccitiello believes that the PS3 is so much more popular overseas that it will eventually overtake Microsoft in this battle of game consoles. He told Industry Gamers:
I don’t think it’s either of those things. Honestly, I think that Microsoft has done great work the last couple of years, and they’ve made a lot of smart moves: hitting pricing when they needed to, the right combination of hitting price points and disk drive sizes that allow them to hit price points that matter, and they’ve done a great job with Xbox Live. At the same time, the Xbox brand, the Microsoft brand, doesn’t carry anywhere near as much sway as the Sony and PlayStation brand do outside the United States, and so I think the reality is the international marketplace is just so important and it’s a natural advantage that no matter how good Microsoft is at growing their business, Sony has an almost-impossible-to-supersede head start.
Hold on Riccitiello: Xbox 360 is on a roll. They’ve sold more units than the PS3 for six consecutive months, and the Kinect is outselling the Move. In September, Microsoft announced that they were 34 percent ahead of sales from last year despite an overall lackluster year for the gaming industry. However, several analysts have told Industry Gamers they predict that 2011 will be the year that the PS3 will beat the Xbox 360. Riccitiello argues that PS3’s marketing strategy to sell the machine as a home unit that can do everything – go online, play Blu-Rays, play video games, etc. – will help it win out in the end. Do you agree?
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