But it’s still convinced that the future is in shorter, downloadable video game experiences. According to Andrew Wilson, the boss of EA Sports, “People are no longer going into GameStop or GAME en masse”, but claimed that there is “still a business of $60 games sold at GAME and GameStop.”
“I won’t predict when that will die,” said Wilson. “I won’t prophesise when games on discs will go away, because the reality is that as long as gamers continue to line up and buy them we will make them.
“But the amount of people on Facebook, on PSN and Xbox Live is growing. There is a shift here. If we don’t get ahead of it, we will find ourselves in trouble.”
EA, more than any other major publisher, has been very proactive in building the foundations for the move to digital – while continuing to invest heavily in new IPs and AAA franchises. At the moment they appear to have a finger in every proverbial pie. It’s an interesting distinction from Activision, who continue to focus more on established franchises, waiting to see if this whole Facebook and Digital Distribution thing blows over.
It’ll be interesting to see which approach wins out in the next couple of years.
‘People are no longer going to GAME en masse,’ claims EA [MCV]
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