We intend to invest $80 million in Gen4 console development in fiscal 13. We are strong believers that console will return to strong growth, and represent a great opportunity – one that is in lockstep with our digital plans," that's the direct word from EA.
Bear in mind that 'Fiscal 13' means "from April 1 2012 to March 31st 2013" and also that EA's statement does not mean that it is working on a console. It does mean that at least on of the platform holders is.
"Gen4" of course indicates Sony's Playstation. However, the idea that Microsoft isn't also lining up a refresher for its home console range is a weak idea.
Let's let EA CEO John S. Riccitiello put some flesh on the bones.
During the analyst conference that occurred after the release of the financial statement, he was asked:
"I'm not going to ask you to comment on next gen consoles, when they're going to launch, but do you see the next gen console being a meaningfully more expensive console to develop for like the last cycle?"
His response was small 'p' political, "I don't know that there's any reasonable way for me to answer that question without breaking a sort of nondisclosure agreements that I have with – because you could backwards engineer what their underlying engineering is if I say it wouldn't be more expensive. And if I tell you it is more expensive, you'll guess that they've made architecture changes in chipsets and GPUs.
"Let me answer your question a little bit orthogonally, which is I wouldn't have told you what I said about the margin opportunity if I was really worried about the composite of the business opportunity and it costing a giant problem. And I'll be able to expand on that a little bit more in the May call, but I really don't want to – I'd much rather – I don't like it when Microsoft or Sony start telling you about my business and I would just as soon the guys at Microsoft and Sony tell you about theirs. Yeah."
Sources: Electronic Arts and EA.
Bear in mind that 'Fiscal 13' means "from April 1 2012 to March 31st 2013" and also that EA's statement does not mean that it is working on a console. It does mean that at least on of the platform holders is.
"Gen4" of course indicates Sony's Playstation. However, the idea that Microsoft isn't also lining up a refresher for its home console range is a weak idea.
Let's let EA CEO John S. Riccitiello put some flesh on the bones.
During the analyst conference that occurred after the release of the financial statement, he was asked:
"I'm not going to ask you to comment on next gen consoles, when they're going to launch, but do you see the next gen console being a meaningfully more expensive console to develop for like the last cycle?"
His response was small 'p' political, "I don't know that there's any reasonable way for me to answer that question without breaking a sort of nondisclosure agreements that I have with – because you could backwards engineer what their underlying engineering is if I say it wouldn't be more expensive. And if I tell you it is more expensive, you'll guess that they've made architecture changes in chipsets and GPUs.
"Let me answer your question a little bit orthogonally, which is I wouldn't have told you what I said about the margin opportunity if I was really worried about the composite of the business opportunity and it costing a giant problem. And I'll be able to expand on that a little bit more in the May call, but I really don't want to – I'd much rather – I don't like it when Microsoft or Sony start telling you about my business and I would just as soon the guys at Microsoft and Sony tell you about theirs. Yeah."
Sources: Electronic Arts and EA.
Companies:
Electronic Arts
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Comments
config 9 May 2012 07:14
1/1
Hang about! "Gen4" could just as easily mean WiiU (N64 > GameCube > Wii > WiiU)