Electronic Arts CEO Praises PS3 Slim Launch

After Sony announced last week that it would release the PlayStation 3 Slim, a new hardware revision of its home console, reactions kept pouring in. Now, John Riccitiello, the Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Arts, has praised Sony's move saying that the new price is right and that the timing of the announcement is perfect.

EA is one of the biggest videogame publishers in the world and it has always claimed to support all platforms equally, although, lately, it has been getting more and more money from Nintendo Wii games and less from titles published on the Sony and Microsoft home consoles. Still, it can only profit from a higher install base of the PlayStation 3.

Riccitiello has also said that Sony made a smart move by announcing the new hardware and the price cut to 299 dollars in August, when it can capture the attention of videogame lovers and of the business media, as closer to the holiday season, the market will be flooded with news, including price cuts and promotions, which could have overshadowed the PS3 Slim.

The new console is now available for pre-order and will be officially out on September 1 in North American and in Europe, plus on September 3 in Japan. Initial signs are encouraging, with Amazon reporting that pre-orders are big and that it is limiting purchases for the moment to one per household, because of possible supply issues. The PlayStation 3 Slim will have a 120 GB hard drive and will offer the same computing power as its normal cousin while being lighter, cooler and using up to 30% less energy.

Based on the performance that the PS3 Slim will post in September, Microsoft and Nintendo might be getting ready to announce price cuts for their gaming hardware and maybe even new iterations.