Zelnick: Next gen consoles to surpass current gen by 2018

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick believes Xbox One and PS4 will surpass the installed base totals of Xbox 360 and PS3 within five years.

Games Industry reports on Zelnick’s investor presentation this week at The Credit Suisse 2013 Technology Conference, where he explained why he believes it won’t take as long for next generation consoles to reach Xbox 360 and PS3’s current combined system sales.

The pair has sold 160m systems sold worldwide over eight years, but Take-Two’s boss believes Xbox One and PS4 will surpass that figure in a considerably shorter amount of time.

"I’d specifically say yes because it appears that–and this is largely anecdotal but tablets are a good example–all these new iterations of more and more exciting hardware seem to have picked up in velocity generationally compared to five or 10 years ago," Zelnick said.

"But if we had a big market meltdown, for example, a repeat of ’08 and ’09 in three years, or two years, or two minutes, that would influence it. But if this economy stays on this track, yeah, I feel good about it."

Zelnick also dismissed concerns over whether the lack of backward compatibility in next-gen systems would hinder consumer adoption rate.

"I don’t see it as a problem at all, and certainly we have the physical ability to port, and it wouldn’t be particularly costly. The question is, ‘Is there an economic opportunity for us to do so?’ I don’t think backwards compatibility affects consumers at all."