IG: What is your take from the third party publisher perspective, on the PSP business? I think a lot of us expected them to make some sort of announcement at the Sony press conference and they basically did nothing.
JS: I think the PSP business has been challenged for a little while now.
IG: Yeah. Are you anticipating anything to change that?
JS: Well, they showed some new games for it, they showed a renewed marketing campaign for it, so I’m optimistic that Sony will… they’re certainly not forgetting about that platform as evidenced by it having some good time in their press conference. I hope they’re able to breathe new life into that platform because it’s been a very nice platform to date, but it has been soft of late. That said, we started out our conversation talking about the 3DS. The thing I like about being a third party publisher is… I’ve got bets on all these things. I want them all to be successful; they’re all my children and I love them all. So 3DS emerges, we want to be there. We’re going to be there and we want to do well on that platform. At the same time, I’d like to see Sony do well. I think we’re pretty well distributed there and diversified.
IG: From my own viewpoint, I was a little surprised that, other than sort of introduce a few new games, and a new marketing focus with this new kid they have to join Kevin Butler, it seems like they just kind of dropped the ball. I mean, the 3DS is grabbing the headlines, grabbing the spotlight, and Nintendo, of course, has always dominated handhelds...
JS: 3DS is great. It’s the hit of the show, but you know, our industry has its ups and it has its downs. It feels like yesterday when the PSP was on allocation because of Monster Hunter, wasn’t it?
IG: Especially in Japan.
JS: Yeah. So, you know, give ‘em credit. The boys are smart. They’re, you know… they’ll do ok.
IG: In terms of the “console wars,” because you mention Sony momentum and how they’ve been doing really well, it seems like Sony is sort of closing that gap despite the Microsoft one-year head start. And maybe Kinect is the answer. Maybe Kinect will sort of reinvigorate that business. Kinect, plus Halo Reach, and some of the other exclusives they have. You must have some added insight coming from the Microsoft side of the business.
JS: I think Sony’s relaunch of the platform last fall with the new industrial design, the slim line PS3 was great. It coincided with a great marketing program. Kevin Butler is hilarious; it’s a great campaign. The “it only does everything” campaign is also great. I mean, they’ve got a great marketing message for the PlayStation 3; they’ve got a great form factor for the PlayStation 3. I think they’ve got a good price point. Of course, as third party publishers, we’d always like to see the prices even lower. And I think… some of their first party content has started to arrive, which kind of pushed it. I think they picked up a lot of momentum last fall. I think that that has continued with some good game releases, and I think their biggest challenge has been keeping their PlayStation 3 in stock.
IG: Right. How do you size up your closest competitor, Activision? When you look across at them as the big publishing rival, is there a certain opinion you have on some of the IP that they have, or some of their publishing philosophy and how it might differ from EA?
JS: I would say we’re two very, very different companies. What we try to be is a company that embodies creative development, that fosters the development of games, that treats talent as well as you possibly can, because at the end of the day, that’s what our industry is and that’s what our company is. Without great people we can’t have great games, and without great games we don’t have much of a company and so it’s all about taking care of the people that make the products and treating them as the most precious resource because they truly are. So that’s really our philosophy. I haven’t worked over there, so I don’t know the particulars, so I can’t kind of go into depth. I don’t know… stories of late [regarding Activision] haven’t been very positive. And we couldn’t be happier to have Jason [West] and Vince [Zampella] as part of our EA Partners program, or Ted Price of Insomniac.
IG: Yeah, those are some very big signings for EA. Well, looking at the games you have on display, is there any one in particular that really stands out for you? Have you been getting feedback on what’s really been doing well for you?
JS:I would say, what has been really encouraging – and again I should flip the question to you when we’re done with the interview – it’s been very encouraging because we’ve had a lot of positive praise about the games that we showed. We’ve had a concerted effort to go from 67 games a couple of years ago to 36 this year. That’s almost half the number of titles we shipped two years ago. So we’re trying to deliver against our fewer-bigger-better mentality; and I think the ten titles we’ve showed… the nice thing is, I got positive comments on just about every one of them. And of course a few stood out because I think we had a great showing on a couple where we had a nice Medal of Honor demo where the 24 PS3s came down; people loved that, seeing the real-time multiplayer demo. So I’ve heard great things on Medal of Honor, great things on Dead Space 2. Dead Space 2, people knew they were kind of coming in are were going to see it, but I think it really surprised them at how great it looks and how fun it’s going to be.
And Need For Speed, I’ve heard a lot of great comments about Need For Speed, too. It’s been eight years since our last Hot Pursuit title. I think people, they didn’t know it, but now once you kind of see it, you get that hankering saying, “yeah, I actually do want to drive that Lamborghini Murcielago, cop car and chase down the Gallardo.” I think that’s gotten very, very good attention and, of course, near the end of the show we had Bulletstorm. You start playing that and, as long as people don’t mind a little bit of crass humor, it puts a big smile on their face. It’s just innovative, it’s just fun, it’s just kind of cool. I'd say those four have gotten the most attention, but I’ve heard very good things on everything else that we’ve showed too. Active on multiple platforms, Crysis 2 in 3D, MMA ... So I think we’ve got good stuff. And we didn’t talk much about Madden, but the innovation that’s happening in our sports titles this year with Madden, NBA Elite, the new control schemes…
IG: I met with Peter Moore actually.
JS: Oh, did you? I’d encourage you to go hands-on with Slapshot and NBA Jam. They’re just tons of fun. I think we’ve got a great portfolio. But then again, I am biased.. But I’m also pretty fair. I think that we’ve got some great games this year.
IG: One thing before we wrap up... I was curious about Rock Band 3 not being shown at the EA press conference.
JS: In the past, Rock Band and Harmonix and MTV games have done their own partnerships... you know, they’ve been on the Microsoft stage, for instance. So that’s kind of where they’ve lived. That’s a distribution title as opposed to an EA published title, if you will, which is really where our press conference kind of lives. We’re a distribution partner; they’re the marketer and the creator of those games. We use our distribution prowess to take that title and put it everywhere around the world. We don’t make or market that title.
IG: Right. So that’s the distinction between that and something like Epic’s Bulletstorm, where you’re kind of doing more?
JS: Right. We work together. We’re the publisher and we help market the title and work very closely with Epic. Obviously, MTV games, Viacom, they’ve got a whole publishing deal as well. What they don’t have, that we provide, is we’ve got sales people direct in all countries all over the world. So that’s the part of EA that they want to tap into and it’s a great program. I mean Valve uses it, as well, for Left 4 Dead. We distributed the last two titles. And again, they’re someone who runs their own marketing programs and development as well. We’ve got a great relationship with them and we're happy that we have been their distribution partner to date.
IG: Thanks for your time, John.
