Remember PS2 days? When said console seemingly had all the great games? Of course you can, it is one of the most successful gaming machines ever forged. So why couldn’t we find those great titles on any other platform? The answer’s a no-brainer: they were exclusive to PS2. Those were the days, old days now, as SCEA VP of public relations, Rob Dyer reckoned, these exclusives are disappearing with the wind.
He did however mentioned that advertising would be the wave of the future, with companies advertising vigorously in an effort to win over potential consumers to purchase games on their console instead of the competitors.
“I point to a couple big examples. One is Batman: Arkham Asylum, with what the guys at Eidos and Rocksteady did, and I point to Madden and the unique campaign EA put behind it with us, showing promotions that were very PS3 focused. And that really drove sales,” Dryer told IndustryGamers.
“Look, we’re not going to get the exclusive games. The Mass Effects, Gears of Wars and Left 4 Deads aren’t going to happen nearly as often. But we have our own first-party development and exclusives like Final Fantasy XIV and Agent. Exclusives just aren’t as commonplace as they were during the PS2 days.
“What is going to be the driving force is either exclusive ad campaigns, like the Madden campaign, or exclusive content like we had with Batman. The PS3 version outsold the 360 version, and what we’ve said to [developers] is ‘If you take advantage of what the PS3 can deliver – more content on the Blu-ray disc, better graphics, being able to get more of what the player wants onto the disc – you’re going to see those sales translate.’
“[EA Sports and Eidos] would both tell you that by focusing on PS3 and its virtues and what it provides, it translated into much bigger sales and bang for the buck.
“So what we’ve been doing is going to publishers and using that as our basic story, and going after exclusive content. You’re going to see a lot of that, and for example, you’re seeing it now with Dante’s Inferno. EA had the collector’s edition only on PS3. They filled up that Blu-ray disc and were able to do a lot more that they couldn’t with 360.
“The consumer is starting to understand that – there’s a lot of cross-ownership between PS3 and 360, and so we’re now trying to differentiate that and give that consumer a reason to buy the PS3 version instead of the 360 version.”
Great insights, Dyer took some shots a Microsoft however, stating that Redmond would rather throw big money at publishers rather than build new studios.
Full thing’s through the link up there. Share your thoughts.
I think this is where 3rd parties look at being bought out by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
If you can only get one game on a certain console, you may buy that console just for that game.
It’s true. Countless gamers will buy a PS3 for God of War III, Likewise a 360 for a game like Alan Wake or Halo: Reach..