The CEO of Ubisoft has indicated that it will be phasing out development of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 software after 2015.
Speaking during an interview with GameInformer, Yves Guillemot made it clear the company’s focus going forward will be on the new generation of hardware.
“What we see is that this year is still fine for the PS3 and 360,” said Guillemot.
“But next year because they are selling very quickly, we’ll move to the new hardware. After 2015, it will be hard for us to create games for those systems.”
PS4 has gotten off to a fantastic start, selling over 10 million units globally since its launch in November last year. Xbox One is playing catch-up, with the last figures revealed by MIcrosoft putting the system at over five million consoles shipped.
As for PS3 and Xbox 360, while Ubisoft may be ready to jump ship after next year, we very much doubt this will be the case for other major third-party publishers. Both systems are still selling well, and Sony always maintained it had a 10-year plan in mind for its last-generation black beast.
Microsoft’s plans are up in the air, although the Xbox 360 seems to have longer legs than its predecessor, which the Big M unceremoniously abandoned support for back in 2005 after a half-a-decade of support.
Of course, back then five years was the typical life-span expected of a video games console, though after PS2’s mighty reign, we expect to see hardware sticking around for much longer.
How long do you think PS3 and Xbox 360 will last? Give us a shout below.