Crytek: PS4 and Xbox "720" in 3 to 4 years
Alongside the London Olympics perhaps.
Crytek boss Cevat Yerli reckons Microsoft and Sony will release new consoles in three or four years' time.
"The PlayStation 4 and Xbox '720' will arrive in 2011 or 2012, we think," said Yerli during the Games Convention Developer Conference in Leipzig, watched by GamesIndustry.biz.
"But this is just our estimate - we don't know. And even if Microsoft and Sony told us, I couldn't say because it would be under NDA.
"But we think in three to four years' time, although there are good reasons why it should be 2010 already...but we'll see," he added.
Yerli, speaking about "The Future of Gaming Graphics", said Crytek plans to release a new version of its in-house engine (CryEngine) in 2012, but thinks resolutions of 1080p and 60 frames-per-second will rule the roost until then.
He also believes graphics cards and CPUs are on a collision course, with the former to pick up more general computing tasks and the latter to handle more parallel operations - something software such as DirectX 11 will push towards the end of 2009.
That's a view shared by many, including NVIDIA's Roy Taylor, who said as much when we interviewed him back in June.
CryEngine 2, the power behind Crysis and upcoming standalone expansion Crysis Warhead, took 25 big-brained adults four years to make, and was built upon CryEngine, which took 20 people three years to create.