EA CEO Says 3 Billion People Will Game in 3 to 4 Years

Speaking at the Ad Age Conference keynote, the CEO of video game publisher Electronic Arts has said that the audience that is playing video games is rapidly growing and that it will become more important for advertisers in the coming years, surpassing that of television.

Riccitiello has said that there are more than 1.5 billion people all over the world that are playing video games, with the biggest increases in numbers coming in the last few years.

The chief executive officer at Electronic Arts also believes that no less than 3 billion players might be engaged in some form of gaming in the next three or four years, which would mean an audience that is bigger than that of television on a world wide level.

Apparently, the biggest growth driver for video games is the spread of smartphones, mainly those made by Apple and those powered by the Google made Android OS, which are making it easier than ever to acquire games and then play them on the move.

Riccitiello has told the audience that, “People don't really do anything else when they're playing games, they're focused on it. When people watch TV or use the internet, they're usually doing something else.”

This means that it is easier to keep gamers focused on ads, as long as they are short enough not to significantly interrupt the gaming experience or are fully integrated in the game world.

The CEO said about the way current United States President Barack Obama targeted young voters in 2008 by placing ads in a number of Electronic Arts published titles, pointing out that the effort seems to have worked.

Briefly Riccitiello has also touched on his company's plans for the future but stayed in the advertising space, saying that the company is planning a huge campaign for its upcoming first-person shooter Battlefield 3, which is being created by DICE, with the stated aim of beating the next Call of Duty title from Activision Blizzard.