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President of EA Labels confirms new hardware from major manufacturers; believes free-to-play will become the dominant pricing model for the industry.
The rumour mill regarding new hardware from both Microsoft and Sony has been particularly active of late. On Microsoft's side, general manager Brian Hall name-dropped a "new Xbox" earlier this month, while on Sony's side SCE UK boss Fergal Gara reaffirmed the company's commitment to retail "whenever the next cycle starts."
One key player for both consoles is EA's president of labels, Frank Gibeau, whose company has pledged to spend $80 million on next-gen development this year. And during his keynote address at the Gamescom opening ceremony, Gibeau confirmed not only that new machines from both Microsoft and Sony exist, but that he has seen them.
"I've seen both of them," he teased during his speech about the future of the industry as he saw it. "Ten years ago we used to measure our market in terms of 200 million people. Now we are at a billion people playing games, and we have a straight line view on 2 billion," he predicted.
Gibeau also reaffirmed EA's commitment to free-to-play, showing off the new Command & Conquer, which is built using developer DICE's Frostbite 2 engine. "Free to play will become the dominant pricing model by the end of the decade," he added.
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