14 DAY TRIAL // John Riccitiello, the former chief executive officer of Electronic Arts, believes that the coming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will be much bigger on launch than the current generation of devices from Microsoft and Sony.
He tells GamesIndustry.biz that, “The last generation can be described as supercharged engines – they had super-powerful boxes. But the entirety of the online communication and being able to connect to your friends and all that stuff, a seamless, smooth, social experience, was just masking tape – barely put together.”
Both hardware makers have understood that social experiences are very important at the moment, as seen with the success of Facebook and Twitter, and are working to make sure that all next-gen consoles give users options to connect with friends.
The former EA leader also believes that the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One have an advantage over the PC at the moment.
He adds, “You put a super computer under your TV, plug it in with one connection and it works. It knows who you are, it knows what your games are and it’s unbelievably simple; it’s not like PC plug and play, it’s just plug and play.”
Both Sony and Microsoft have said that their platforms are moving closer to the PC in terms of architecture in order to make the game development process smoother.
For Riccitiello, the biggest competitor for the Xbox One and the PS4 is represented by the next generation of tablets, which will offer a lot of computing power, touch controls and portability.
The ex-CEO has already said that Battlefield 4 has the upper hand over Call of Duty: Ghosts in the fight for the first-person shooter genre crown.
No clear launch dates are yet available for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, but both consoles are expected to arrive in November.