The president of Electronic Arts Labels, Frank Gibeau, believes that Sony and Microsoft will release the next generation of consoles—unofficially referred to as "Xbox 720" and "PlayStation 4"—within a year.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Gibeau shared his understanding that impending release of the new generation of hardware is the cause for the current slowdown in the industry. He said that the market will continue to remain rather stagnant until a "new game changer" shows up on the scene.
"The new hardware is going to be coming out in about a year’s time, so we’re right around this period in time when the market’s going to slow down and then you have a new game changer coming with all new technology, all new hardware, and another growth period," he said.
"I don’t know what [Sony and Microsoft] are calling them, I’m under non-disclosure so I can’t comment too much about what they’re specifically doing."
Gibeau previously said in his keynote speech at Gamescom that the two major companies—Sony and Microsoft—had demoed working versions of their next-gen consoles to EA.
"Transition is our friend – is kind of the saying we have around EA – because it gives you a chance to reset everything," he said. "And we’ve done enough transitions in this business that we know what we’re doing, and we’re going to go after this one in a big way."
He warned that some companies currently at the top of their game may fall along the way during the transition, while others could easily emerge as leaders in the next generation of games.
It goes without saying that the release of the next-generation consoles is a surefire thing, especially if EA is willing to invest as much as they already have into creating games for the future platforms.
