The war for your money starts now.
EA's recently promoted Head of Labels (which means he has his finger in many pies at Electronic Arts) is Frank Gibeau. Frank, like all publishing execs, is well trained in not actually saying anything in public. However, in a recent interview, he almost did. Let's have a look.
On Next-Next Gen consoles, he's taciturn, "I'd like to see the cycle last a little longer. I don't see consumers right now banging on the walls for a new platform. They seem to be very happy with their PS3s and 360s. They love the online connectivity, they have great communities and great libraries.
"I like the fact that Nintendo's coming in with new hardware. That'll help really rev up their business for the HD side, which is where we're in a really good position. It's not secret that we didn't have big business on Wii. We have a very strong business on the highest gross platforms. Bringing them into the HD category is much more in our strike zone and we're very pleased to see them coming in.
"It's hard for me to conceive what you would do on a PlayStation 4. The displays are already 1080p, you're already connected to the internet... I don't know what you think? You could make it faster, you could have more polys and you could up the graphics a little bit but at what cost?"
Of course, the games are the most important things. There's talk of the upcoming face-off between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 where he insists that his game will be the better of the two and that EA is going to take Activision's share of the market from under their noses: "We're going to give them competition for the first time that they haven't had." Pretty bold.
Gibeau also mentions that EA is looking to its history to mine classic franchises and bring them back with an all new spin. Both the Strike and Road Rash series get a mention, but nothing is confirmed further than that the company does have "a couple of old franchises that we're looking at right now... re-imagining them and bringing them back."
The Old Republic also gets a mention ("We think that we're on the right track") as does the soon-to-be released Vita. He believes that it's in with a shot at doing better than the Nintendo 3DS because it's clearer what Sony is trying to do with it, plus he thinks it has a better slate of launch titles. Of course, the fact that there's a FIFA game due for release on the system doesn't hurt either. More releases on more formats should hopefully mean more sales.
Fans of the long-running franchises like FIFA and Madden will be especially glad to hear that for now he's taking a hands-off approach. "I don't really see any need for sweeping change," he states while admitting that his focus for the short-term is getting the different sections under the EA umbrella to work more in partnership with each other, especially by sharing technology.
Much of what he talks about is shrouded in the exec-speak we're used to but it's worth a read. Of course Gibeau has to put a positive spin on everything over at EA, but here's hoping that the confidence he has isn't misplaced.
Source: CVG
On Next-Next Gen consoles, he's taciturn, "I'd like to see the cycle last a little longer. I don't see consumers right now banging on the walls for a new platform. They seem to be very happy with their PS3s and 360s. They love the online connectivity, they have great communities and great libraries.
"I like the fact that Nintendo's coming in with new hardware. That'll help really rev up their business for the HD side, which is where we're in a really good position. It's not secret that we didn't have big business on Wii. We have a very strong business on the highest gross platforms. Bringing them into the HD category is much more in our strike zone and we're very pleased to see them coming in.
"It's hard for me to conceive what you would do on a PlayStation 4. The displays are already 1080p, you're already connected to the internet... I don't know what you think? You could make it faster, you could have more polys and you could up the graphics a little bit but at what cost?"
Of course, the games are the most important things. There's talk of the upcoming face-off between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 where he insists that his game will be the better of the two and that EA is going to take Activision's share of the market from under their noses: "We're going to give them competition for the first time that they haven't had." Pretty bold.
Gibeau also mentions that EA is looking to its history to mine classic franchises and bring them back with an all new spin. Both the Strike and Road Rash series get a mention, but nothing is confirmed further than that the company does have "a couple of old franchises that we're looking at right now... re-imagining them and bringing them back."
The Old Republic also gets a mention ("We think that we're on the right track") as does the soon-to-be released Vita. He believes that it's in with a shot at doing better than the Nintendo 3DS because it's clearer what Sony is trying to do with it, plus he thinks it has a better slate of launch titles. Of course, the fact that there's a FIFA game due for release on the system doesn't hurt either. More releases on more formats should hopefully mean more sales.
Fans of the long-running franchises like FIFA and Madden will be especially glad to hear that for now he's taking a hands-off approach. "I don't really see any need for sweeping change," he states while admitting that his focus for the short-term is getting the different sections under the EA umbrella to work more in partnership with each other, especially by sharing technology.
Much of what he talks about is shrouded in the exec-speak we're used to but it's worth a read. Of course Gibeau has to put a positive spin on everything over at EA, but here's hoping that the confidence he has isn't misplaced.
Source: CVG
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