Gibeau: new IP doesn't make sense this late in current generation

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau believes that the time for new IP is at the beginning of a console generation, not towards its end.
The Electronic Arts exec reveals that the publisher is working on "three to five new IPs" for the next generation of consoles, but feels development resource is better spent on iterating existing series during the life-cycle of contemporary hardware.
"The time to launch an IP is at the front-end of the hardware cycle, and if you look historically the majority of new IPs are introduced within the first 24 months of each cycle of hardware platforms," Gibeau told Gameindustry.biz. "In this cycle we've been directing our innovation into existing franchises.
"If you look at what we're putting into Need For Speed: Most Wanted we're taking a lot of risks there, the same thing withBattlefield - you have to admit that, from Bad Company 2 toBattlefield 3, there's a huge amount of change there."
It's a depressingly conservative position but, couched in the relative safety of established series, Electronic Arts is indeed innovating - at least in an iterative sense - and Gibeau's sentiments make sense. However, in making his assertions, Gibeau is calling into question the willingness of players to take risks on new ideas, and it's less clear if it really is market conservatism, or risk-averse publishers creating the situation. Gibeau doesn't seem to think it's the latter - a position backed up to some degree by the modest sales of bold mid-tier releases such as Vanquish, Binary Domain and Inversion.
"If you look at the market dynamics, as much as there's a desire for new IP, the market doesn't reward new IP this late in the cycle," he continues. "They end up doing okay, but not really breaking through."
But as Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs' two-week run at the top of the UK charts shows, there are exceptions to every rule. And it's difficult to discount the interest around Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, which is slated for the current generation.
As console life-cycles extend (it's hard to imagine that the next generation will revert to the hitherto traditional five-year cycle), it will become increasingly difficult to justify such a rigid adherence to sequel production over the creation of new games. Gibeau admits as much, but should the ten-year cycle become the norm EA will have to change its long-running reliance on regular updates to a handful of core franchises if its seat at the summit of videogame publishing is to be retained in the years to come.

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