EA: “demise of console gaming is very premature”
These days we tend to hear about the doom and gloom surrounding sales of particular gaming consoles. Moreover, some believe that traditional games could be on their way out due to the rise of mobile devices.
If you were to ask Electronic Arts chief operating officer Peter Moore about the situation, he’d tell you that consoles are here to stay. Speaking with Bloomberg TV, Moore noted that “The demise of console gaming is very premature as far as we’re concerned.”
He said:
“The console business is still a core part of our business; it’s the majority of our business. The demise of console gaming is very premature as far as we’re concerned. …And so, people still want core games. People want to sit back in their living rooms, take advantage of their HD TVs, and and play fully immersive games like [Battlefield 4].”
Moore went on to speak about the promising outlook of digital content. Moore believes that by 2015, there’s a chance that digital sales (including mobile, downloadable content, and subscriptions) could overtake EA’s traditional packaged goods business.
“In two years we could be looking at the tipping point where digital becomes bigger than the traditional core.”
Moore also spoke about the departure of EA CEO John Riccitiello. In the end, Moore feels that the company’s next CEO simply needs to “execute”.
“We did not execute to the level that we needed to in [fiscal year 2013] and [John Riccitiello] took accountability for that. And I think the future CEO will focus on pure execution because all the ingredients are there; we have the world’s best developers, we have a tremendous publishing pipeline, and we’ve made the hard decisions about our platform.
