Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst recently went on record to discuss expectations for the holiday season. Despite weakness from several developers including Acclaim and Sega, Electronic Arts retail sales were up 112 percent for the first 10 months of 2002. "We're still getting really significant initial orders," Probst said. "Those early orders are a strong indication of demand because many retailers have moved toward a model of small initial orders while they wait to see if the game is a hit."
One of the gems in Electronic Arts' crown this year has been Madden NFL 2003. While the game has performed extremely well on the PlayStation 2, Probst expressed some reservations regarding Microsoft's approach towards offering online gameplay, saying "We have to sort through some issues with Microsoft before we can provide support for Xbox Live." It's clear however, Electronic Arts expects Sony's PlayStation 2 to continue to dominate at retailers this holiday season. Probst continued, "Game sales are being pulled along by sales of Sony's PlayStation 2 console, which has gained sales momentum at the expense of Nintendo's competing GameCube machine, and has increased the pressure for another price cut on that lagging console. I think clearly GameCube is underperforming versus expectations this year. I think it will be interesting to see what they do with the price point in calendar 2003."
Well, not really smack, but you get the idea. It'd be interesting to see what would happen if N dropped to a $99 price point this early in the game. What would Sony and MS do?
N of old would just ride it out and populate a zillion games with furry and fun mascot characters, but everyone's expecting something different from the new Nintendo.
And again, hopefully EA will come around and provide Live support to the Xbox.