Speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford, Electronic Arts' Chief Creative Officer Rich Hilleman talked about the changing landscape in the video game industry and how the entire industry is being "re-engineered." [Thanks VentureBeat] Hilleman, who's been in the industry for over 25 years, sees a big shift as the platforms for games are increasingly mobile, social and online-connected (the iPhone being a great example of this). Furthermore, the play style is changing as game makers increasingly target casual players over the hardcore audience.
Hilleman noted that the iPhone, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and other mobile game platforms now outnumber console platforms by two-to-one. Moreover, he said that Sony and Microsoft "nearly expired crossing the finish line as they launched their consoles and probably don’t want to launch new ones anytime soon," since they cost so much in R&D and production.
Analysts are all mostly in agreement that this will be a much extended console cycle, and Hilleman thinks we're more likely to see marginal upgrades in the future. “I expected we’ll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720,” he said. “The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away.”
