EA's Gibeau expects PS4 and next-Xbox to hit retail "in about a year's time"

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau believes Sony and Microsoft will release the next set of consoles "in about a year's time."

Speaking with Bloomberg TV, Gibeau said because of the impending release of new hardware, the market is in a period of flux and it will continue to slow down until a "new game chnager" emerges.

"The new hardware is going to be coming out in about a year's time, so we're right around this period in time when the market's going to slow down and then you have a new game changer coming with all new technology, all new hardware, and another growth period," he said.

"I don't know what [Sony and Microsoft] are calling them, I'm under non-disclosure so I can't comment too much about what they're specifically doing."

Gibeau said during his gamescom keynote has had seen both machines with his own eyes, and that the industry was currently undergoing a normal transition phase before hardware is released at retail.

"Transition is our friend - is kind of the saying we have around EA - because it gives you a chance to reset everything," he said. "And we've done enough transitions in this business that we know what we're doing, and we're going to go after this one in a big way.

"But it is a time where you see new companies emerge as leaders and some traditional companies fall away."

Earlier today, industry analyst Colin Sebastian predicted that a new Xbox and PS4 arrive sometime in 2013.