EA has been one of the game publishers at the forefront of digital transformation

EA has just announced that the company's digital games download revenue for the first time exceeded $100 million trillion, and EA hopes this year's figure will reach 200 million. At the same time, Frank Gibbl Frank Gibeau, EA brand Director, disclosed that "EA will inevitably become a 100% digital company", and that this decision has nothing to do with the EA Monthly report released by analyst NPD.

"Corporate change is about to begin in the near future. We are very excited to have a clear plan for this. It should be said that retail is an important channel for our sales, and we maintain a very good relationship with our partners. At the same time, the most important relationship for a gaming company is the connection to the player. If the player wants to get the game through digital downloads, that's what we're going to do. It will bring a great improvement to our business, let us have the ability to do more. At the same time, it also allows us to think about something interesting from a service perspective, so that we can become more personalized. Gibble in an interview with authoritative game media gamesindustry.biz.

Of course, EA has no intention of abandoning entity retail channels and valuable retail partners from tomorrow onwards.

"If users want to buy a retail game, this is no problem at all, we can continue to provide the game in the appropriate format." If a retail approach declines, there will naturally be another way of retailing. For us, the fastest growing business is digital sales, so it is inevitable that EA will eventually embrace digital services and become a 100% digital company. Gibble added.

In fact, a growing number of industries are turning to digital and opening up a transformational window for EA and other gaming companies.

"EA is very concerned about the overall development of the game market. Now, the number of people playing games goes far beyond. EA has more and more market, including Asia, Brazil, Russia and many other emerging markets in the legalization of the rapid development. In addition, we now have more game publishing platform. Previously, we could only publish on 3 platforms, but now we can release products on 14 or even 15 platforms. With the rise of IP TV and streaming media, we will create and provide content for users in a high-quality way. While we do not yet know the specifics of the next generation of hardware devices, we are excited by the opportunities that cloud technology and streaming media offer. We have a good relationship with Gaikai and other companies, which allows us to do more research and make us realize that we have the ability to make large-scale transformations in digital services. ”

Gibble said some industry watchers and investors were unaware of the bright future of EA, partly because of the decline in the EA's monthly retail report. In this respect, Gibble said EA has now completely ignored the data statistics of NPD.

"I think a big problem in the current gaming industry is that many people are blinders by the wrong data, and they only see a small percentage of the situation," he said. There is a vibrant, potentially huge market between Facebook, social, mobile, PC free games, Asia, and game consoles. The poor report from NPD only reflects part of the game industry, but it gives people the wrong impression. Gibble retorted.

"My view is that these NPD reports have nothing to do with the industry, which has been completely ignored within EA." Our focus is on company services and how to keep in touch with users. For example, the number of new accounts, the average user's active time, and so on are more important metrics, not the NPD report and North American sales and other cold figures. So you asked me before what would happen, and I can tell you that it was "growth." Things are moving in the right direction, and if cloud technology and streaming media become widespread, we will greet them with a more positive attitude. Gibble said at last.