14 DAY TRIAL // We already know that Nintendo is launching a new home console, the Wii U, next year and there are regular rumors about plans for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 but at least one high level video game executive believes that the current generation of devices is enough for developers and for gamers.
Frank Gibeau, who is now the leader of the EA Labels division, has told CVG that, “It's hard for me to conceive what you would do on a PlayStation 4. The displays are already 1080p, you're already connected to the internet... You could make it faster, you could have more polys and you could up the graphics a little bit... but at what cost?”
The executive is still very interested in seeing what hardware makers like Microsoft and Sony are planning for the next generation of home consoles but he believes that there's still a lot that developers can do with the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
Gibeau added, “The way the business used to run where you had these big console transitions just isn't happening anymore. They're much longer, the online capabilities are making the way customers interact within the audience very different from when we went from PSOne to PS2.”
Sony has insisted that the PS3 has a ten year life cycle and has recently made the console more affordable by dropping its price to 249 dollars.
Microsoft has similar plans for the Xbox 360 and the platform has recently received a boost from the launch of the Kinect motion tracking system.
The Electronic Arts executive says that gamers are still interested in what can be achieved on the two devices and highlighted the Frostbite 2 engine, which allows for fully destructible terrain, as one example of what a good development team, like that at DICE, can deliver.