THQ Calls For End of Console Cycles

With systems no longer limited to five-year lifespans, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has outlined the multiple system phases seen by modern game machines.

A year ago, THQ Chief Executive Officer Brian Farrell said the gaming console market was splintering into separate demographics based on system prices.

Farrell is now identifying another division based on the divergence between console release cycles.

"We used to always think of this industry as 'the cycle.' I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles," he said.

Farrell pointed out four unique product courses currently running in the games industry to MTV's Multiplayer blog:

• Handhelds
• Perpetually improving online games
• Nintendo's Wii and future iterations
• The traditional Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 lineage

"It's hard now to talk about 'the cycle' - I think we have to talk about all of the cycles," stated Farrell. "The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around 'the cycle.'"

THQ remains committed to the strategy Farrell presented a year ago.

"There are going to be different gamers for the different systems," explained Farrell. "So our strategy is different types of content, segmented on who the users of the systems are."