In a presentation at the Goldman Saches Technology and Internet Conference yesterday, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said to not expect a new console “anytime soon from either Microsoft or Sony." Fair enough, with Sony’s Kaz Hirai recently stating that the PlayStation 4 is a ways off. But what about Nintendo?
"It's difficult on Nintendo - we'll let them announce their new hardware,” quipped Farrell.
An investor asked Farrell about further console cycles, with some expecting new home consoles in 2013. Farrell explained that rising development costs have actually made a possible new console cycle almost unwanted for the publisher. This is a sentiment that was previously put forth by THQ’s Core Games Boss, Danny Bilson when he said a new console generation would be “horrible”.
“To your point, it used to be that investors would play the console cycles - a new console would mean a period of hyper growth in the industry,” said Farrell.
"Now that games costs have gone up so much, these cycles have gotten longer, so it's harder to understand how to play the console cycle. The other thing that's difficult for investors, but we're starting to get more visibility on it, the transition we're going through right now, is more of the packaged goods to the digital. “
"What we like about now is we've put most of our capital behind the 360 and PS3 for the next couple of years and that's where we think the action's going to be. So between those two platforms on the core side and the uDraw for us on the causal side, that's how we think we're going to make money,” he continued.
Farrell also mentioned that publishers and developers were still feeling out new market trends, like DLC and micro-transactions.
"And it's hard for people to understand: What does that really mean in terms of revenue profitability? Now we're seeing some of these business models emerge like free-to-play, hybrid, DLC as part of the console eco-system..."
The Wii software lineup is currently sparse, once The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword comes out. Could Nintendo really have something up their sleeve for E3 this year?
[Via CVG]
