Capcom Boss Expects New Consoles in Two to Three Years

Most in the industry recognize that Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move and 3D pushes are ways to extend the lives of their consoles. Capcom Europe head David Reeves, however, only expects the stop-gap solutions to last a few more years. Speaking about the new technologies in a GamesIndustry.biz interview, Reeves said, "Capcom is definitely going to embrace it and just as the first-parties are doing, we see it as another blip before we come into the next cycle. Anything they can add to revive and pique interest in the games until we have another clash of the titans in two years time." He says he hasn't been given any inside knowledge of future hardware plans, but expects "two to three years" before we see new systems. "All the first-parties have got to be working on something," he said. "The tricky thing is when do you put a stake in the ground on technology? That's the problem. You can be waiting a few extra months to implement something, but you've got to set a date to go with a certain chip at a certain point otherwise you're going to miss the key milestones." Reeves also cites titles like Wii Fit and Guitar Hero as making the most money for the industry in the last few years. "And then on the other side you've got the Activision and EA hardcore titles," he said. "They're in a box. Publishers don't want to give up their core values but they need to reach out to this wider market." He says only the games that are "purpose built for Kinect and Move" will be successful on the devices. He may be right in his predictions. Sony's proposed 10-year life cycle for the PlayStation 3 didn't necessarily mean new hardware wouldn't be introduced before it was over -- the PS2 lived healthy along the PS3 for quite a while, after all. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is borrowing time with Kinect and treating it like a new hardware launch, but they're likely preparing for the next generation as well. Nintendo is the biggest mystery, since years of speculation about a Wii HD have constantly turned up nothing.