Electronic Arts Exec Calls For Single Gaming Platform

Executive vice president and general manager of Electronic Arts International Gerhard Florin has made a call for a single open gaming platform, complaining that competing brands of consoles currently create unnecessary difficulties for developers and consumers. "We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," said Florin in an online BBC article. "We're platform-agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden.” Florin suggested that Web-based games and set-top boxes would continue to grow in importance for the industry, but that the continued use of dedicated consoles could last “up to 15 years”. Predicting the future ubiquity of set-top boxes in particular, Florin suggested that, in the future, "You don't need an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii - the consumer won't even realize the platform it is being played on."