EA CFO Says This Console Generation Has Just Begun, Plenty Of Price Cuts To Be Had

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Posted March 12, 2009 - By r_pad

The Console Wars: Rise of the Machines

Using the percentage of PlayStation consoles sold at various price points across a console's lifecycle, Electronic Arts CFO Eric Brown believes that this console generation has a long ways to go, with many price cuts in the future. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, he noted that 44 percent of the original PlayStation's lifetime sales happened at $99 or less, while 45 percent of the PlayStation 2's lifetime sales were rung up at $149 or less. He was quick to point out that there has only been one round of price cuts so far in this generation.

"In the first half of calendar 08, there was rough parity between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Second half of the year, [there is a] 40-plus percent sales advantage to Xbox versus PS3, potentially as a result of that price drop. The point here is that we've seen one major price drop thus far in this console cycle; we feel that we have a long ways to go, and a lot more of the unit sales will occur at the lower price points."

The news should hopefully temper the boisterous opinions of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fans that are superemely confident that their console has bested the other one. The fact is, it's foolhardy to make such silly declarations (which I see every day) since it's too early in this console generation and there are too many things that will happen. While it's my dream that data being delivered by a CFO will help ardent gamers apply logic to their arguments, I'm sure someone will find a way to twist the argument and turn it into something ridiculous.

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