EA Says Future Of Video Games Is Digital [EA CEO Predicts EA Will Make More Cash On Digital Games Over Physical Ones]

Electronic Arts’ CEO John Riccitiello recently spoke to Reuters in a sit-down interview and had some very interesting personal opinions, mainly that in the next year – digital games will make more money than traditional games. He declared digital online games already make up 40% of EA’s revenue, and next year, they will pass ‘packaged’ games (for example – games you buy in a gaming store that come in a plastic case).

Some of the examples of ‘digital games’ that Riccitiello gave to Reuters were Facebook games, games on Pogo (EA’s website that hosts Flash games), iPhone games and MMO games (like EA’s Warhammer Online). Riccitiello also included subscription fees and money made off extra content for ‘regular’ games in the ‘digital games’ revenue.

Case in point – EA’s purchase earlier this month of ‘Playfish’, a social Facebook game. Riccitiello said the Playfish purchase, among other moves, is apart of EA’s new plan to make money in the upcoming transition from physical media to digital media purchased off the Cloud.

Riccitiello gave the example that EA set out to make more income from ‘digital games’ only three years ago, and last year, they made $138 million from such ventures. The CEO added that if “EA’s digital business was a standalone company, it would be like the darling of Wall Street.”

No doubt about it, EA has been making money, but they also have gotten some heat from gamers for their use of microtransactions and extra content sold to them. Time will tell if EA can keep making money off of a $4 extra jersey pack for Madden NFL 10 or a $1 iPhone game.