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EA Exec Says He's Seen the Next Xbox and Playstation

This article is more than 10 years old.

The likelihood of new consoles from Sony and Microsoft is one of the biggest open secrets in video games. We've seen developer kits for sale on Ebay, job listings for next-

gen console development and leaked internal documents. It’s all rumor, of course, because those two companies have been tight-lipped on the subject. Microsoft even went so far as to dance out of what appeared to be a fairly explicit reference by one of its employees to “the next Xbox.”

The latest slip of the tongue comes in the form of a Gamescom keynote, where president of EA labels Frank Gibeau claims to have firsthand knowledge of the PS4 and NextBox, or whatever.

"I've seen both of them," he said, according to IGN. "Ten years ago we used to measure our market in terms of 200 million people. Now we are at a billion people playing games and we have a straight line view on 2 billion."

Last week’s interview slip was a minor note in a longer piece on The Verge, but this is a much more direct, and much more public reference to both consoles. It makes one wonder -- with the conversation about the next generation of consoles moving farther and farther out into the open, how long will Sony and Microsoft be able to keep these projects under wraps?

It’s probable that developers have had their hands on prototypes for some time, and that’s what Gibeau is talking about when he says he’s seen the consoles. But depending on how close we’re coming to an announcement, it’s possible that these machines are finished and waiting at the top of the stairs to make their entrance.

via IGN