14 DAY TRIAL // An executive working for video game publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it is aiming to expand the amount of money that it is bringing in from digital sources, with the ultimate goal being to achieve a 40 to 60 percent slip between digital and physical generated revenue.
Eric Brown, who is the chief financial officer at Electronic Arts has said at the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference that main sources of growth for his company were found in microtransactions and in paid extra downloadable content for games on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
The CFO has pointed to FIFA Ultimate Team saying that there are players willing to spend “$500, $800, $1000 on digital trading cards so they can get the best possible line up of teams”.
He added, “This has driven net digital revenue of FIFA from $15 million for FIFA 09 to $31 million for FIFA 10. We don’t know where the number’s going to end up for FIFA 11, but we do know that we’ve sold more packaged goods units.”
The company is expanding its best known brands, making sure that the main retail packaged release is accompanied by a more social oriented offering coming to Facebook and even by an online-based microtransaction based title, as is the case with Tiger Woods.
Full game downloads are also becoming more important for Electronic Arts, with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 from developer DICE being the leader in the field.
Brown says that when looking at current revenue, Electronic Arts gets 750 million dollars from digital offering on the PC mainly, but also on mobiles and consoles.
The figure in 2008 was just 420 million.
Electronic Arts has its own store selling its biggest video game releases, but it lacks the high profile obtained by other digital distribution services, most prominently Steam from Valve.