EA CEO: “PC is the fastest growing platform today”

Riccitiello criticises NPD reports

Chris KempJuly 22, 2012

EA is taking a bit of a beating in the stock market at the moment, but CEO John Riccitiello said there’s an erroneous perception among investors right now that the game industry is difficult to invest in. According to Riccitiello, this is due to questionable NPD reports that only factor in boxed US retail sales.

Riccitiello says people had the same perception about PC gaming. “Just five years ago people said that the PC game business was in a radical state of decline because NPD said it was down 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, year-in year-out.

“The fastest growing platform for video games today is the PC, but it’s growing through subscriptions, through micro transactions and through downloads.”

This is where Riccitiello takes issue with the NPD reports, saying that EA are transitioning from a packaged goods company to a “service business”, using FIFA as an example. Previous versions of the game showed a sharp drop-off in players after a month, but FIFA 12 (which has had regular updates and new challenges) has had “five million players that first week and it’s now july, and we’ve had no fewer than four and a half million players since then.”

He also hints at more free to play projects in the future, and suggests The Old Republic’s move to allow the first 15 levels to be played for free has been successful.