If you were wondering why EA's E3 press conference had a severe case of sequelitis, the answer is that the publishing giant sees a bigger advantage in holding off on debuting new Intellectual Property (IP) franchises until the next big hardware refresh.

Speaking to CVG, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau stated that "In the new cycle you're going to see a lot of new IP from Electronic Arts."

He told CVG: "The introduction of new hardware from the big three is going to allow us to reembark on a bunch of new IPs, because it's the better time to do it, because you can really explore new ideas and do different things.

"In a market this massive, launching new IPs is very risky and it's a big investment to make these games. So it's a natural thing to see in this point in the cycle a little bit more emphasis on the knowns, but in the new cycle you're going to see a lot of new IP from Electronic Arts."

While in the interim, we can expected more Dead Space, more Medal of Honor, more Need for Speed and more SimCity, Gibeau asserts that EA will have a lot of freshness when the expected next Xbox and PlayStation consoles finally come to town.

"I can tell you right now there's between three and five new IPs that we're working on that we're thinking about for the next-gen. Some of them might come to market, some of them might not.

"it's really one of those things where I'm consciously looking at introducing new IPs into the portfolio over the next several years as the new hardware comes into the marketplace that we can refresh."

The comments inadvertedly indicate that the publisher isn't confident in the Wii U's promise of innovation, as the already three month old Mass Effect 3 is their only confirmed title for Nintendo's new platform, with "a number of sports games" from the EA Sports line-up also expected.