Electronic Arts is seeing growth in its digital distribution since the launch of Origin and has already begun investing in the next generation of consoles, despite the fall in Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions.
Steam once had a monopoly when it came to be the only digital distribution platform where one could purchase digital copies of games and expansion packs. However, since then Ubisoft has launched Uplay and EA has launched its own service, Origin.
The latter seems to have benefitted from the move as it recently reported it made more than $1.2-billion in its fourth quarter through the sales of its titles via the digital distribution platforms.
$150-million were generated from over 11-million registered users via Origin in the previous 10 months as it seems that EA has a firm foothold in the digital distribution market.
Games such as Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic also boosted sales significantly during this time period. That is not all as the Play4Free titles that EA offers brings in an astounding total of $2-million every week!
EA is set to expand its Play4Free portfolio in the near future, which cannot be a bad thing for gamers who want to play quality titles such as Battlefield Heroes and World of Tanks for free.
The increase in digital sales has seen EA invest heavily in the platform as they prepare themselves for the next generation of home consoles to be announced. It seems that the age of the physical disc copies of game is nearing its end and a lot of how soon the digital medium takes over will depend on the growth in the area with the next-gen consoles.
If anyone wants an indicator of how seriously EA is taking the digital distribution for next-gen consoles, well the company recently invest $80-million for the purpose.
However, there is a bit of bad news for the company as the number of gamers who have subscribed to play the online MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic has dropped from 1.7-million to 1.3-million in the space of two months, which should worry the publisher, albeit slightly.
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