EA: Digital business to overtake consoles

Already represents almost half of the gaming industry.

EA CEO John Riccitiello has revealed he expects the digital video game business to overtake the traditional packaged goods console business as soon as next year.

"When people think of games they traditionally think of the Xbox, the PlayStation and the Wii, and they forget about all these online services that are out there – subscription, micro-transactions, games they find on Facebook or if they go to Pogo, or if they play Warhammer Online, they download games, or they get them by way of their mobile phone or their iPhone,” Riccitiello told Reuters.

He added: "If you add all that stuff up, it’s almost half of the industry now. It’s about 40-45 per cent. Next year it’s likely to be a larger share of the total industry and it’ll be bigger than the console games all put together."