Moore: New home consoles years away
"We're nowhere near mass market pricing."
EA Sports president Peter Moore doubts Microsoft and Sony will invest in new consoles for at least three years.
The ex-Microsoft and SEGA executive described the launch of Kinect and PlayStation Move as "tantamount to new platform launches", and insisted "we're nowhere near mass market pricing".
"If you look at the history of the pricing, we're in mid-cycle," Moore told Eurogamer in a new interview published today.
"Chronologically, this is the last few years of previous cycles, but when you look at pricing, we're mid-cycle.
"Over the years, $199 and below has been where 75 to 80 per cent of business is done. With the exception of 360 and the Wii, PlayStation 3, which seems to have a lot of momentum, is not even close to that.
"So we're still to reach a price point across all three consoles where historically 75 to 80 per cent of business is done. Yeah, I think we're in mid-cycle."
Microsoft has said Kinect, which allows gamers to play games without a controller, will extend the life of the Xbox 360 by five years.
And Sony has repeated its belief that this generation will last significantly longer than previous ones.
Moore said the current pricing of the consoles, in particular the PlayStation 3, suggests it'll be years before we see new hardware hit store shelves.
"When you've got things like Move and Kinect, these are tantamount to new platform launches for both Sony and Microsoft respectively.
"I don't think they are going to be investing in new hardware 12 months, 24 months, 36 months after investing I'm sure a considerable amount of money in getting both of these platforms out.
"I'm sure if you ask them is this a tactic and a strategy to extend the current life cycle, they'll say absolutely. You add Kinect to the average price of an Xbox 360, you're back up to that $400 again. That's not the end of the cycle. We're nowhere near mass market pricing. Maybe with the Wii – and you've seen a little bit of a downturn in that business. But they've sold a considerable amount of consoles."
