Xbox One branding will help Battlefield 1, EA argues

EA’s Battlefield 1 has teamed up with Xbox One for its marketing push – a fact that EA says will not dent the game’s commercial prospects.

"Our console partners want to stand right next to the biggest and best games in the industry," EA boss Andrew Wilson told investors, as reported by Eurogamer.

"Typically what we see is that just aids awareness. It aids awareness whether you’re a PC gamer or an Xbox gamer or a PlayStation gamer. What the console partner hopes to achieve is some disproportionate awareness around the game as it relates to their particular console.

But what we have seen – and we’ve seen the analytics against it – is if you’re a PlayStation gamer, you do not reject it because it is brought to you by a potential console partner. You understand deeply it’s also available on your console. And what we get is just a multiplier effect of greater awareness in the marketplace."

Such agreements are nothing new, of course. For years Call of Duty carried the Xbox branding, with DLC hitting Microsoft’s platform first. This all changed last year when Activision’s shooter defected to camp PlayStation. Black Ops III went on to exceed all expectations, although who knows whether this was in any way linked to platform branding.

Certainly, Xbox One exclusivity did not help Rise of the Tomb Raider, which has to date seems to have fallen short commercially. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows on the other side. PS4 exclusive Street Fighter IV has also failed to meet its sales goals. And Square Enix has previously argued that, sales aside, its partnership with Xbox very much resulted in a better Tomb Raider game than we would have otherwise had.