San Francisco (CA) – BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has reportedly criticized Activision’s threat to “stop supporting” Sony if the company did not implement an immediate PS3 price cut.
“Certainly the Wii’s been a massive success and Sony’s probably not going as fast as they thought it would be but I think that they’re starting to make the right moves and the software’s coming along,” Zeschuk told CVG . “I think it’s silly to be saying you’re not going to support Sony. The brand itself is still huge and there are millions of [users] out there.”
However, other industry players – such as Jim Sterling of Destructoid – have insisted that “Sony needs Activision” more than Activision needs Sony.
“Activision makes a metric f***-ton of money on the Wii, PC, Xbox 360 and DS. It could halt production of all PS3 games today and still be rolling in money tomorrow,” wrote Sterling. “That’s not to say that Activision is prepared right now to pull support from Sony — Activision loves money, and it still makes money from the PlayStation brand. However, why Sony feels it should further antagonize Activision, I do not know, but it makes Sony’s PR department look like clueless dip***** as usual.”
As TG Daily previously reported, Activision chief Bobby Kotick recently claimed that the PS3 was losing “momentum,” while the Wii and Xbox 360 were “just selling better.” Kotick also noted that Xbox 360 games generated a higher ROI (return on investment) in comparison with PS3 titles.
“They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow,” Kotick told the Times Online. “If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony.”
Sony CEO Howard Stringer has responded to Kotick’s threat by attempting to downplay his controversial remarks.
“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer told Reuters. “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”
