Electronic Arts’ CFO Blake Jorgensen has said that although retail remains important, digital downloads are the way forward and will eventually overtake physical sales. Speaking at a Nasdaq investor briefing, Jorgensen revealed that more than half of EA’s revenue is generated by the digital channel, which includes add-ons and subscriptions.
In the last fiscal year, 25 percent of EA’s full games were downloaded between the Origin, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network platforms. The company expects this figure to rise to 30 percent during the current year.
Like in books, music, film, and TV, we see that the consumer will ultimately consume [games] digitally. We’re careful to continue to work with our retail partners; they are very important in the mix, but we’re also ultimately trying to be where the consumer ultimately wants to consume the product.
Jorgensen went on to say that digital downloads are more convenient than driving to a store to buy a game. He also believes that consoles with larger hard drives will help drive digital sales.
[Source: GameSpot]
