Playstation 4- Release Date

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick ruffled a few feathers when he partially blamed the Wii U for his dismal outlook on the second half of 2013, but he's not been exclusively hating on Nintendo's system — in fact, he believes that the problems faced by the fledgling platform could easily impact Sony and Microsoft's new hardware, too.

During the company’s recent Q1 2013 Earning conference call, Kotick said:

There are still many unknown factors, such as pricing, launch dates and quantities, the level of first-party support and, importantly, consumer purchase intent in a world where consoles are no longer just competing with each other, but also with new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.

There's a lot of truth in that statement — consoles are becoming increasingly marginalised in many households thanks to the rise of mobile and tablet gaming, and it's fair to say that many "casual" players have all but abandoned their dedicated gaming systems as a result. You could argue that things could be even worse for PS4 and the Next Xbox — neither system has the unique hook that the Wii U boasts, and many consumers may struggle to justify the cost. Software support is another big question — sure, plenty of developers and publishers have said they will make games for both consoles, but the same thing happened before the Wii U launched — and look how that has turned out.

Could the Wii U's unique promise of two-screen gameplay be its secret weapon in this situation? Or will the allure of better visuals be enough to open wallets when the PS4 and Next Xbox arrive on the scene? Let us know what you think, as well as your opinion on Kotick's comments.

[source mynintendonews.com]