EA has so much faith in its Frostbite engine that it doesn't believe it will have any problems creating games able to take advantage of whatever new hardware Sony and Microsoft may have planned.
Quizzed about mid-cycle updates to PS4 and Xbox One during its earnings call last night, EA CFO and executive VP Blake Jorgensen was understandably tight-lipped over the platform holders' plans, but did state that EA is ready for whatever comes to market.
"I can't tell you a lot about what Microsoft or Sony or other console makers plans are," said Jorgensen.
"In terms of any mid-cycle upgrades, once again I can't predict. But what I can tell you is that what was heard I think publicly from the console makers is they're realising that the compatibility issue across consoles is an important consumer issue. And as Microsoft has shown, they've tried to do with some backward compatibility on to older titles and new titles. I think that's going to be an important part of what a mid-cycle might look like if there is one, which removes a lot of the risk associated with what we've seen historically with console cycles.
"We don't spend a lot of time worrying about it," he continued, "because we feel like our ability to develop for whatever new technology comes, the risk of that's been minimized because we've moved towards one single engine, Frostbite. And we're able to port that to whatever platform or point that to whatever platform is evolving or is upgraded."
Jorgensen concluded that EA's diverse business model means the "notion of a console cycle becomes somewhat irrelevant" in its "ability to generate strong earnings and cash flow.
"We'll all be interested to see where Microsoft and Sony come out if they do something at E3 or sometime in the year to come, but we're excited about the continued growth in the business and not afraid of a cycle change if that was to occur."
With Nintendo deciding not to showcase NX at E3, the stage is clear for either Sony or Microsoft to show off new console technology.
