EA: PC Becoming Largest Gaming Platform
EA says that the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform.
Electronic Arts yesterday reported its quarterly results with net revenue of $860 million, down $267 million as compared with $1.13 billion for the prior year. Even with the dropping results, losses weren’t as bad. Net loss for the quarter was $42 million, as compared with a net loss of $94 million for the prior year.
According to Shacknews’ listen-in on the earnings call, EA has seen its digital direct revenue grow to $400 million in the last fiscal year, and digital game distribution nearly doubled in revenue year-over-year to $80 million.
With many gaming PCs being net-enabled--at least more so than gaming consoles--the computer gamer is seen as a big market for digital distribution.
"In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what's happening in the future is, we've got probably a billion PCs out there in the world," said EA CFO Eric Brown. "Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product."
While the PC is a games platform that is constantly evolving with new GPUs and updated APIs, the console market is one that sees a full reboot every handful of years. EA CEO John Riccitiello said that he’s seeing the console lifecycle slow down a little bit, perhaps with this generation riding for longer than the usual four to five years.
"I think that [console] arms race, while I can never say that it's done, the relevance of doing that faster.. seems to have subsided," said Riccitiello.
Riccitello may be right. Although the Xbox 360 debuted in 2005 and the PS3 and Wii the following year, the entire generation still seems to be growing in their own respective niches.

It was the one game I buy every year. Play it for like a month and then shelve it till next year when I buy the new copy.
I have to admit, when i was younger i did torrent games, but i never had the intention of buying them because i was poor and had no money. BUT BECAUSE I DID TORRENT THEM THEN, and I have money now, I totally want the business to benefit for great games. if i want to try a game now, i demo it. i think it worked for their benefit as well as mine. sorry for my little life story, i live my life on tangents
PC Gaming software retail sales for 2008 were at $700 million. Even if you think that retail sales only account for 1/3 of all sales (not even close to realistic) that would put PC gaming at $2.1 billion for the year. Console software sales easily eclipsed that mark in December 2008 alone + about $600 million. It isn't even close.
Like I said, PC gaming will never be the largest gaming platform again, ever. Even if you consider each console to be a separate platform PC gaming is still pathetically far behind compared individually against the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Oh, the graphics look great, but the game sales don't. The game sales look awful.
So many people are waiting for wc3,starcraft II,sims 3 they will sell big i will buy all 3 once they are out.
oh how are you so wrong my friend. Ask valve how many games they've been selling. just go ahead. just ask them. digital distribution is the future, and guess what? pc has been there forever.
and another flawed part of your argument is that you picked the busiest time of year. EVERYONE knows shit sells like ten fold on holiday season. do you remember the steam sale? do you remember how epic it was? do you even HAVE steam? imagine how many games digitally they sold compared to the limited, and possibly 'sold out' copies of retail...
lol. using npd #'s and ignoring digital distribution. hahaha i bought fallout 3, far cry 2, mass effect, and COD 4 all through steam. yeah pc gaming is down,lol just tell that to the millions of tf2, CSS, WOW, and guildwars players. you fail.
let's face it, PC gaming? expensive graphics addon that could buy an entire console... thank God for competition...
I addressed digital downloads RIGHT THERE.
Everything I said, including that, was spot on.
Then if you want to trade each console as a separate platform PC gaming is still fourth or fifth behind every next-generation console and possible even the PS2. It just can't compete.
And yes. I have Steam. I purchased L4D last weekend and The Orange Box the weekend before for $9.99.