EA: Next-gen consoles may not be backward compatible

Next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible, EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen has suggested.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, as reported by Gamasutra, Jorgensen said that he expects EA to do good business on current-gen consoles for financial year 2014 even if new consoles do arrive this year.

Jorgensen said that since many of EA’s most popular titles are annual sports games that follow sporting calendars, users who buy those games are likely to stick to the PS3 and Xbox 360 rather than waiting to play those games when the new consoles arrive at the end of the year.

"An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible. If you [play] multiplayer on a game, you’ll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation,” Jorgensen said.

The above comment seems to suggest that next-gen console owners won’t be able to play multiplayer with those playing the same game on a current-gen console i.e. someone playing FIFA 14 on the PS4 won’t be able to play multiplayer with someone playing FIFA 14 on the PS3.

However, Jorgensen’s comments don’t suggest that the PS4 will not support PS3 games, or that the next Xbox won’t support Xbox 360 games. He simply states that multiplayer may only be supported amongst those playing on the same platform, which has always been the case.

The first of the next-gen consoles is likely to be announced from the Sony camp at the PlayStation Meeting 2013 on 20th February. That ought to clear all this up.

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