EA: Digital Revenues to Surpass Physical in 2016

GamesIndustry reports that according to EA COO Peter Moore, digital revenues are set to overtake physical sales by 2016.

During a keynote conversation with Entertainment Software Association president and CEO Mike Gallagher at the Digital Entertainment World conference, Moore discussed the lessons the game industry has learned as it transitions to digital games.

He says that the high sales of the PS4 and Xbox One are beneficial to the entire industry as they've created a highly competitive environment and he believes that both console and mobile sectors will thrive in the years to come. 

Moore, comparing the state of the games industry today to that of the music business when it switched to digital – from which it has never fully recovered – said that there's nothing publishers can do to change consumer habits as they move to digital and that the industry must embrace "creative destruction." 

Games today require significant customer support and global billing options, Moore said. Admitting that EA is still learning how to ensure its games are always accessible, he added that games today need to be continually available. 

EA has tripled its consumer facing support staff in the last five years as Moore explained that the company's customers have changed from retailers to gamers and he noted that EA will respond to a player's issue within 30 minutes on Twitter.

Marketing is also changing, with EA's TV adverstising down 20 per cent while the publisher has doubled its digital marketing and engagement spend. He said game companies shouldn't spend million on TV in the hopes or seeing higher sales with community engagement and a focus on performance based marketing being much more effective. 

"TV ads today are chum in the water. It attracts customers, then reel them in with digital media so you can engage instead of pushing a message out," he commented.

EA is publishing a number of key console titles in the coming months including Titanfall, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.