EA Sports Leaders Sees No New Consoles for Next Three Years

Peter Moore, who is the president of the EA Sports division at Electronic Arts, has said that the current generation of console, made up of the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, will go on for another at least three years, as developers try to recoup their development costs.

Talking to Eurogamer as part of an interview Peter Moore said, “If you look at the history of the pricing, we’re in mid-cycle. Chronologically, this is the last few years of previous cycles, but when you look at pricing, we’re mid-cycle.”

He went on to add, “Over the years, $199 and below has been where 75 to 80 percent of business is done. With the exception of 360 and the Wii, PlayStation 3, which seems to have a lot of momentum, is not even close to that. So we’re still to reach a price point across all three consoles where historically 75 to 80 percent of business is done. Yeah, I think we’re in mid-cycle.”

He cited the launch of the Kinect and Move motion tracking systems as further proof that Sony and Microsoft are aiming to extend the life of their hardware rather than introduce new platforms.

Peter Moore believes that the fact that a Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle will reach 400 dollars this fall means that the manufacturer has a lot of space to make price cuts that will get consoles in the hands of more gamers.

The big player that does not conform tot the trend is Nintendo, who has moved a lot of Wiis during the last few years and is now facing a downturn in terms of sales, which could be accentuated this fall after the launch of Move and Kinect.

Analysts have long predicted that the company is working on a Wii with the power to show High Definition content but so far nothing has been officially announced.