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GameStop CEO Paul Raines has said that the company expects to see “some new consoles in the next few years”, amidst rumours that both Sony and Microsoft are planning to roll out new versions of the PS4 and Xbox One.
The retailer isn’t in a position to talk about what the new consoles may be, however, because its partners would “get upset if we jump ahead”.
Speaking to marketing website [a]listdaily, Raines said that he expects GameStop to be “pretty dominant on new consoles, and the reason we’re dominant is because we have the PowerUp Rewards program with 46 million members around the world. We have those people on file, and we know how much trade credit they have at home that they bought from us. So it’s easy to market to them and say, ‘Hey Mr. Gaudiosi, you’ve got $48. Why don’t you bring that in and trade it against the new Xbox or PlayStation?’
“So we anticipate that we’ll see some new consoles in the next few years. We don’t like to talk about that because our partners get upset if we jump ahead, so we’ll let them disclose that. Consoles are good for us any way you slice it.”
Sony is currently rumoured to be working on an upgraded version of the PS4 codenamed ‘Neo’, while Xbox chief Phil Spencer has actively said that fans will “see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation [that] allow the same games to run backwards and forward compatible”.
Release timing for either console isn’t clear, although PS4 games will reportedly be required to ship with a Neo-ready mode from October 2016. Nintendo’s next console, codenamed NX, meanwhile, is set to release worldwide in March 2017.
“There is some excitement around NX,” Raines continued. “Lately here, we’ve been hearing a lot more buzz than we have in the past. Nintendo is interesting in that they really are able to keep things as quiet as they can for a while. And then they just lost their leader, so they’ve gone through a mourning period and so forth. NX sounds exciting. We’re looking forward to it. They’re very innovative in everything that they do. I hope that they come out with something exciting and innovative. I think we’ll be dominant distributor of that platform.”
Source: alistdaily.com
