EA wants 'open gaming platform'

                                      Games are exploiting the increasing power of games consoles

Rival gaming systems should make way for a single open platform, a senior executive at Electronic Arts has said.

Gerhard Florin said incompatible consoles made life harder for developers and consumers.
"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," said EA's head of international publishing.
He said the web and set-top boxes would grow in importance to the industry.
"We're platform agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden," said Mr Florin.
EA currently produces games for more than 14 different gaming systems, including consoles, portable devices and PCs.
"I am not sure how long we will have dedicated consoles - but we could be talking up to 15 years," Mr Florin added.
He predicted that server-based games streamed to PCs or set-top boxes, would become increasingly important.
"You don't need an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii - the consumer won't even realise the platform it is being played on."
Set-top boxes are becoming increasingly more powerful as they include technology to deal with High Definition TV streams and access to the internet.