Mass Effect 2 was released on the PS3 without much fanfare, but was also quietly released digitally on the PSN. This was one of the first times a major publisher has released a new AAA title digitally on consoles on day one, so we were curious to see just how well the game did.
Talking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, EA CEO John Riccitiello wouldn’t be drawn on specific numbers, but claimed that a double digit percentage of the purchases were made digitally, which bodes well for a digital only future on home consoles.
According to Riccitiello, it was a “meaningful” experiment.
“This was really more about proving it can be done than it was proving what the opportunity would be,” claimed Riccitiello. “So an unmarketed game one year after the original was done on the Xbox and the PC, we released the PS3 and managed to do very, very well with it.”
A double digit percentage is a success, but hardly a big enough number to justify consoles going completely digital in the near future. We’re keen to see if big publishers like EA attempt similar experiments with AAA releases in the future.
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