Next-Generation Consoles Will Appear in About a Year, EA Says

Electronic Arts’ Games label boss, Frank Gibeau, has revealed that next-generation consoles will be released in “about a year’s time” and that EA is more than ready to make the transition from the current PS3 or Xbox 360 to the future PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720.

Next-generation consoles have been rumored for quite some time and many analysts already predict that both Sony and Microsoft will reveal their new devices next year and even release them onto the market before the end of 2013.

While those were just predictions, EA’s Frank Gibeau has made a pretty interesting statement to Bloomberg TV, via CVG, confirming that the next-gen consoles would arrive in about a year’s time.

The EA executive first talked about the current market and revealed that the lack of growth is due to the old consoles.

"We're into the sixth or seventh year now of this generation of hardware and so it's a mature market. In terms of [software sales] fatigue, I consider it more of a mature market, a stable market. [Sales] flatten out a bit towards the end [of a console cycle]. Typically a transition year before new hardware comes out you see that flattening effect inside of the business.”

Gibeau then predicted that new consoles would soon arrive, saying that, “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."

When asked to elaborate, the EA executive quickly revealed that he signed non-disclosure agreements so he won’t reveal anything else.

"I don't know what they're calling them, I'm under non-disclosure so I can't comment too much about what they're specifically doing," he added.

Gibeau also noted that EA is more than ready for the next-generation consoles, as it wants to invest heavily and make sure that it will emerge as a leader in terms of games for the PS4 or Xbox 720.

"'Transition is our friend' is kind of the saying we have around EA because it gives you a chance to reset everything. 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. But it is a time where you see new companies emerge as leaders and some traditional companies fall away."

While both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are here to stay, at least according to Sony and Microsoft, it’s quite possible that their replacements will be revealed sooner rather than later.