Muzie

EA's Dr. Andrew Garrett: Skip the PlayStation3

Mr. Ehrenberg,

I have to say I find your article extremely speculative and frankly, very thin on actual content. Some comments:

- As a videogame developer myself I could only laugh out loud when I read your mention of Mr. Andrew Garrett as an "insider" - by that definition any one of the other 7000 employees employed by EA would be an insider, in fact, any developer within the industry (which would include myself, as I've been working in the industry for aout 10 years now) would fit your very broad description. Moreover, not to rattle on Mr. Garrett, but his credits listed on mobygames.com shows his first released title was 4 years ago, which barely qualifies him for even senior status at most videogame industry companies.
- Your "insider source" is working on Command and Conquer 3, a game slated for release on the PC & Xbox platforms only. Since your source is not actively developing on the PS3, one can question what competence he has commenting on a platform he has ever worked with.
- Either way, it does not matter - I could buy that Mr. Garrett is qualified to comment on the technical merits of the PS3 (assuming he had actually developed on it), but I fail to see exactly what qualifies Mr. Garret as a stock analyst. Technical performance does not equal profits. The first Xbox was well known in game developer circles to be higher performance, more flexible and generally easier to work with, and that still didn't make it the no.1 console at that time.

As an "insider" myself (by your definition), I can tell you this:
- The portfolio of games on each console will determine which console wins
- Price will (still) play a huge factor
- Technical performance will not matter
- The PC is making a comeback, competing for console dollars

These are my insights. Then again, I don't think I need to be an industry insider to see those things.