PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan reassures Sony and EA have a good relationship, despite exclusive deals signed with Microsoft and Xbox One, such as Titanfall.Speaking with MCV, Ryan said Sony doesn’t plan on countering such deals with ones of its own.
“We have over 1 million pre-orders, so why would we need to do that? We had to switch off day one pre-orders, we are now onto day two, so why would we pour gasoline onto the fire? Platform holders and publishers run pre-order campaigns, and if you need to increase momentum then they dial it up a little bit with some promotional stuff, it’s a rational thing to do,” he said.
“But do we need to do that? No. It’s common knowledge that EA has done a deal with Microsoft, but all of its games – Battlefield, Need for Speed, FIFA – are all on PS4. In fact, the only platform you could play Battlefield 4 at gamescom was on PS4. Try and find that on Xbox One.”
While Ryan wouldn’t disclose how the 1 million pre-orders were split by region, he said Europe was “right up there” with North America and that part of the system’s momentum ahead of launch has everything to do with the company’s PS4 message.
“We have learnt a lot of lessons from last time around – there were a number of things we did on PS3 that we would not knowingly repeat,” he said. “We sat and reflected and soul searched a lot, and we decided early on that we wanted to be single-minded in our pursuit of the gamer with PS4. And that is what we’ve done, and we have set our policies, our design principles and the rest of it with that in mind.
“From the start, people have had a clear idea of what PS4 stands for and they can either take it or leave it, and it seems like lots of people want to take it. There’s no ambiguity. There’s no confusion. And it has helped us gain momentum ahead of launch.” Sony releases its PlayStation 4 in North America on November 15 and in Europe on November 29.
