Place your bets and let’s get ready to rumble, as many in the industry are expecting another knock-down drag-out fight between the “big two” console manufacturers this Fall/Winter.
EA’s COO Peter Moore said he’s expecting the clash to come during this year-end hot period of retail sales, and also suggests that the waves created will only benefit those in the industry (like Electronic Arts for example). “I think it’s going to be a great fight in the holiday. And as a third-party publisher, we sit right in the sweet spot. Consumers love it as well, and it’s good for the industry. You need powerful companies like Sony and Microsoft to be battling out with each other because it drives investment in their platforms. It drives competition.” Said Moore.
But with the next-gen nearly steaming into its second year, what of the old standards like 360 and PS3? Moore says not to worry, as they will continue their support (at least for a while longer). “The hope is we get a decent tail of two or three years, and we’ll continue to make games for those platforms as long as fans buy them. What PlayStation did with the PS2 was a wonderful tail. I was at Microsoft and we kind of buried the Xbox quickly because to be blunt, it was just losing money… You could argue maybe the tables have been somewhat turned in this generation.”