EA says Xbox One exclusives aren't about playing favorites with Microsoft

PlayStation fans have been pouting over the number of Xbox exclusives coming out of EA for months, but the game publisher alluded that their patience may pay off.

The game giant EA is denying showing favoritism toward Microsoft, despite the sheer number of Xbox exclusives announced at key industry events this year.

Between last June's E3 2013 announcement of a PC and Xbox-only Titanfall and last week's Gamescom deal from Microsoft that bundles a free copy of EA's FIFA 14 with all European Xbox One pre-orders, Sony fans have been left feeling downright neglected.

But the head of EA's sports division denies that's the case, instead touting the company's longtime partnerships with both hardware manufacturers.

Long-term relations

"We have relationships with both companies that go back many, many years, so I think that what you saw [from Microsoft at Gamescom] was, just from a phasing perspective, you saw a little bit more of the Microsoft stuff," EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore, a former Microsoft executive, told Gamesindustry International this week.

Moore claimed Microsoft is likely using such exclusives as a way to "catch up" with Sony in Europe, where the Xbox platform still plays second fiddle to PlayStation.

"I don't think that we're favoring one over the other, we love them both dearly. It's important to the publishing community that both are very successful and I think they will be very successful."

The EA executive also suggested PlayStation 4-specific "partnership opportunities" could be forthcoming in the near future, confirming both Sony and Microsoft have aggressively pursued content from the publisher.

• We won't play favorites with the latest news on the release of Sony's PlayStation 4.

Via Eurogamer