EA exec says cross-generation console releases will last up to two years

How long will games be released for both next generation and current generation consoles? It's a matter of importance to people who plan to stick with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for the foreseeable future.

Patrick Söderlund, executive vice president of the EA Games label, reckons it'll take about two years for most franchises to move over to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

I think it will take about 18 to 24 months to get to full gen 4

"Ultimately, the volumes of hardware will dictate that," said Söderlund, in an interview with CVG. "The consumers tell us when we can move on. It's always this way in the first wave where the majority of sales will still be on the old consoles, that's just how it is, because there's not enough installed base on the new machines yet."

EA is bringing some of its first big franchise games like FIFA and Battlefield 4 to both generations of consoles, while reboot franchises like Mirror's Edge 2 and Star Wars Battlefront have so far only been confirmed for what EA calls "gen 4" and for Windows. Those games have yet to be given a release date.

"Historically the first year out most titles have been cross gen," said Söderlund. "Then the second year there's less and less, but in year three you'll probably see everything apart from maybe one or two games in the industry on [next gen]. So I think it will take about 18 to 24 months to get to full gen 4."