EA disappointed by PS3 game sales

Electronic Arts executive VP Frank Gibeau has said the publisher was "disappointed" by the number of PS3 games sold per console in the run-up to Christmas.

During the third quarter ending December 31, EA took orders for more than 900,000 PS3 games from retailers worth a total of US$ 41 million (EUR 31.6 million).

For the same period in 2005, which saw the launch of Microsoft's next-gen console, orders for Xbox 360 software totalled more than 1.69 million units - worth US$ 76 million (EUR 58.5 million).

Speaking in a conference call, as reported by Video Business, Gibeau attributed the poor PS3 tie-ratio to "the eBay effect", observing that many early adopters were simply purchasing a console to sell it on a higher price. He went on to state that the ratio did improve over the month of January.

Although EA is the number one publisher for Sony and Microsoft consoles, it has offered less support for the Wii in terms of the number of titles available. During the last quarter, the company sold nearly 800,000 Wii titles for revenues of US$ 29 million (EUR 22.3 million).

EA recently announced plans to ramp up the number of titles it produces for Nintendo Wii and DS, with 15 games currently in development.