At the Credit Suisse 2016 Annual Technology Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Electronic Arts Chief Competition Officer Peter Moore was asked if according to him the advent of new consoles is sucking revenue away from software.

According to Moore, this isn't true, as investment in new hardware is great for the industry in the long term, mentioning that the mid-cycle refresh is "exciting" for those in the publishing business.

"No. [...] I take a long-term view. If there are dollars invested in hardware, that is great for the industry long-term. I don't worry, as a video game executive, about what's happening this week or this month or this quarter. I'm actually enthused if this mid-cycle refresh that is unique and exciting to us in the publishing business, allows this generation to continue much longer, and at a much higher rate than maybe previously."

Moore also mentioned that, beyond not seeing any evidence of a conflict in revenues between hardware and software, he's optimistic about the upcoming NPD results, even if he did not specify for which game.

"As you and I know, things have gone like this for thirty-odd years now, since the Amiga PC, and the PlayStation and the Super NES.

I've seen no evidence of that, and the numbers that we have seen reported publicly obviously don't take account of digital, and we're seeing continuous strength in digital, and we're gonna see in the next few days, I'm sure, some of the results of Black Friday, not only Black Friday here bit it's Black Friday around the world now, and I think that, without giving the game away, I think we're going to be comforted, if not pleasantly surprised."

Electronic Arts Battlefield 1 topped the NPD charts in October, but having launched towards the end of the month, it's quite probable that it has legs to perform well in November as well, especially considering Black Friday deals.  As Moore mentioned, we're probably going to know around the middle of December.

Electronic Arts executives also talked with confidence about the new consoles at the UBS Global Technology Conference in San Francisco, where Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who explained that the mid-generation refresh "bodes really well for both the hardware side of the business and the software side of the business."