EA on Next Generation Systems

Following Electronic Arts’ financial announcement the company held a media and analyst conference call, during which executives elaborated on plans for current and upcoming consoles.

In regards to Sony’s PlayStation 3, the company expects to have four or five titles available within the console’s launch period, which EA defines as lasting from the date of the machine’s retail availability until the end of the calendar year. Among these titles will be EA Tiburon’s Madden NFL 07, EA Black Box’s Need for Speed Carbon (preview, interview), and EA Redwood Shores’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. The other one or two titles were not named.

EA seems confident in the long term prospects of PlayStation 3, even if it takes developers some time to get accustomed to the machine. "This Christmas, it’s going to be difficult to harness the full power of the PS3 on first generation software versus what will be second generation 360 games, so they’re going to be more alike than different, is our opinion at this time," said an executive. "As those machines develop over time, there’s a lot of horsepower inside the PS3 that we’ll be able to unlock over years two, three, and four that we’re very excited about." Speaking in terms of development progress on PS3 versus Xbox 360, an exec added, "We’re slightly ahead of where we were on 360 at this time last year."