“Congratulate yourself,” Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told his audience this morning at CTIA 2012. “Every one of you is in the gaming business.” Riccitiello opened his keynote address by stressing the importance of gaming to the mobile industry. “Games more than any other type of application or function are driving dramatic growth in the mobile industry,” said Riccitiello.
Electronic Arts, maker of popular games like Madden NFL and Dead Space, generates more revenue from the iOS app store than any other company. Riccitiello said that Android app revenues are harder to track, but that he believes EA is the leader there as well.
“Games generate more than $44 billion in revenue, and smartphone games are growing at more than an 80% clip,” said Riccitiello. “There are ten times the number of mobile devices as game consoles.
Mobile has become a game platform.”
Riccitiello stated clearly that he did not expect mobile devices to “wipe out the console business.” Instead, he said, today’s games are ecosystems that live in the cloud, and players expect their game progress to translate seamlessly from mobile devices to consoles.
“The best games are services,” said Riccitiello. “And the heartbeat of these is micro-transactions. This has brought in billions of new consumers. We give the game away for free. Each player determines how much or how little they want to play and spend. The barrier to entry is low the tendency to pay is high.”
Riccitiello went on to speak about the promise of IPTV, arguing that by bringing more gaming capability into homes, IPTV will take eyeballs away from traditional programming. “When cable consumers have the option to play games, TV will become less popular and games will go through the roof. Games win every time,” he said.
Winning every time is clearly a goal for Electronic Arts, and Riccitiello expressed great confidence that EA and its competitors will become increasingly important to the mobile industry. He closed by telling his audience, “”By 2015 you will all join Sony and Nintendo in seeing game companies as your most important partners.”
