EA Believes In PlayStation 3 Comeback in the United States

Publisher Electronic Arts is interested in seeing both the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony sell well on both North American and European markets, creating a competitive environment that leads to stronger video game sales for the company.

Jens Uwe Intat, who is the senior vice president for Electronic Arts Europe, has told MCV that, “Traditionally, third-party publishers are stronger on Microsoft and Sony platforms than on Nintendo, so 360 and PS3 getting stronger certainly suits us.”

He also believes that Sony has the power to increase sales on the United States market and threaten the good position that the Xbox 360 enjoys there.

Intat added, “We could certainly see Sony come back – in the UK it’s still a head-to-head competition between PlayStation and Xbox, but on the continent Sony is traditionally stronger than Microsoft. But we’re very happy to watch the competition, because as long as they’re competing to get more consumers in, there are more people we can sell games to.”

The vice president says that both motion tracking device, the Kinect from Microsoft and the PlayStation Move from Sony, are interesting and that it will be up to the player base to decide which of them will perform best at retail.

The PlayStation 3 has seen sales increase in the United States since the new Slim version of the home console was launched back in August.

Electronic Arts has said that sales of PlayStation 3 video games have leaped by 40 percent over the same period of last year, with the PS3 version of Madden NFL 11 actually managing to sell almost as many copies as the Xbox 360.

Both Microsoft and Sony are hoping for significant sales of Kinect and Move, creating a player segment that can then ask for motion tracking powered games from publishers like Electronic Arts.