EA Earns Big On Digital Sales, Focuses Resources On Next-Gen

Written by: Austin Regimbal (Twitter @austinreg - Google+) | May 13, 2012 12:30 pm

23 Comments

EA announced on Monday that they’ve earned a boatload of money via “digital revenue.”

Just how much did EA earn? $1.2 billion. IGN reports that this is a 47% increase in year-over-year growth.

EA’s digital revenue came from a number of sources, most notably in digital downloads of full games, such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.

Other digital revenue streams include EA’s Play4Free group and digital sales from PopCap, which was acquired by EA last year.

Not to mention the staggering $150 million that EA earns through their Origin service.

Somewhat predictably, EA is now shifting focus more on digital distribution as well as investing a reported $80 million on developing games for next-gen consoles.

What’s the secret to EA’s digital success? Do you still buy physical copies of games? Let us know in the comments.

EA Earns Big On Digital Sales, Focuses Resources On Next-Gen

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http://profile.yahoo.com/7MPGC5FCQJZGFKICKCMALR3AYY Eric

The secret is making games like ME3 and SWTOR digitally exclusive to Origin. Origin kinda sucks imo, especially compared to Steam. The only reason I have it is because of those 2 games.
TacoBaal

Their secret? Force people to use Origin.
http://twitter.com/Vazzaroth Josh Hagood

Battlefield 3 being Origin specific sure helped, I bet. I believe that’s the only Online Revenue I’ve given EA in recent memory (Besides stuff Steam took a cut of) and and pretty much the only time I ever plan on it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson

What’s the secret to EAs success? Jewing the ever loving fuck out of their customers.
http://twitter.com/nemui_89 Nemui

they won’t improve origin, they won’t do anything for their customers except parting them from their money.. please people, stop paying them.
Jado Cast

KoA:R was the last game I bought with EA on the box. I hadn’t bought one before that in a while, and I will not buy another.
H S

EA used SWTOR to boost Origin, hence the holiday early release. They wanted casuals (non mmo players) to use thier services.

I said long ago, SWTOR wasn’t competing with WoW, Origin is competing with steam.
jazzbrownie

The last EA game I bought was swtor, and I intend to keep it that way. The company is a stain on the industry that shouldn’t be tolerated.
http://www.MasterRenny.com/ Thomas Renshaw

Ive said it once ive said it twice, people need to stop supporting EA, but they wont… I love the Sims Games, and am looking forward to the new SimCity, but the only problem is its a branch of EA…i might have to “obtain it by other means” if you know what i mean
- http://twitter.com/Perro_de_Pelea KampfHund
  
  Well, it’s pretty simple for me. EA simply don’t make anything I find interesting anymore. So far they’ve killed all the series’ I enjoyed from them (Crysis, Battlefield and Mass Effect).
  
  ..but if you like the game enough to pirate it, you like the game enough to buy it. Publishers don’t ‘learn their lessons’ through people unlawfully obtaining their IP.
  - http://www.MasterRenny.com/ Thomas Renshaw
    
    Cant really say much about Crysis, BF or Mass Effect as ive never played or been interested in them.
    
    i wait til they come down in price, or try the game by downloading before buying, if it isnt any good i delete and dont buy.Publishers who are trying to stop illegal downloading by implying they’re losing out on money is rubbish, studies have shown people who illegally download are more likely to spend more money on legal downloads of music/games…etcPlus people download because they don’t have the money, therefore in my opinion the publishers wouldn’t had even got the money they supposedly should have if everyone had brought the music/game….etc because the person downloading dont have the money to begin with
Kman1242

Awful. Even buying a used game now, EA (Along with various others) STILL get your money off you, with the stupid online pass crap.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Carlos-Moreno/100000967473108 Carlos Moreno

I buy Physical, since i would basically pay the same amount for a digital copy. Which i think is rubbish. They save money, and you would think they might pass some of that savings on the price of DD games. I don’t think DD is the future, it is just a convenience and nothing more.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/TONVMNTPMGKQMHJ2EX2XVJ5KKU Brendan Coffey
  
  Many could argue the more immediate convenience of a digital download, and the fact that downloading a game or song, or what be it digitally, is a lot safer for the environment.
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

So… they are cutting the future development for SWTOR then… Thats how they make their money. Always have.
http://www.facebook.com/malek.toumi1 Malek Toumi

A sad day for gaming
http://profile.yahoo.com/7MPGC5FCQJZGFKICKCMALR3AYY Eric

curious, whats with the repost? article is timestamped for a few hours ago, but there are days old comments already. i should know, i was really bored that day.
Old Ben

No one forces you to buy EA products. If you think they’re not worth what EA asks for them, don’t pay. It’s not like they have a monopoly on insulin or anything like that.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ronny-Sunrock/100002737688676 Ronny Sunrock

Consider how much it cost to produce a really good AAA game to day 1.2 Billion is not more then investing in more 10-15 good games.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R35J5EUERGS3E6JRIQMBCDTRRY Nathan I
  
  uhh your average AAA title does not cost $100 mil to make. In fact quite a lot of them only cost like 5 – 10 mil to make, if that. It’s the expensive, derivative sequels that tend to cost exponentially more to make
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=574881462 David Er-Rami
    
    Uhh you’re beyond wrong… Grand Turismo 5 was a 60$ million dollar project. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a 51.3$ million dollar project… Video games are the new Hollywood in the 21st century.
http://twitter.com/crocodilius ryan phillips

If you’ve ever read your Origin receipts, the money goes to a Swiss bank account so they’re really raking in the interest% on all this money too.

Also: Need for Speed World is awesome.
http://twitter.com/Perro_de_Pelea KampfHund

No way would people leave valve for EA. Valve hires people who actually care about what they do; I find it hard to accept that those people would go to work for a company as soulless and money-orientated as EA.

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