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Peter Moore: next-gen to usher a rebirth in packaged goods

Posted August 24th, 2012 at 07:42 EDT by Mike Harradence
4 Comments

Peter Moore, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts, believes that the arrival of next-generation consoles will stimulate interest in disc-based products.

Chatting with MCV, Moore declared “with a new generation of consoles coming up, packaged goods will get a rebirth.”

“The tipping point will come,” insists Moore, “but it’s not that packaged is going away, it’s that digital is going up.”

“But let’s not misunderstand this. Our forecast this year is to also do $2.6bn in packaged goods. So there will be a £40 console game, but there will be an iPhone experience and a PC experience too. There is always a big opportunity for a Battlefield or a FIFA.”

Many industry giants have voiced their opinion on the demise of physical products as digital-based goods continue to prosper.

Just recently, Patrick Soderlund, EA’s senior vice president, said he feels while disc-based products are still a viable model, in the long run digital goods are likely to supplant them in the next decade or so.

Do you think downloads will replace physical goods? Let us know in the comments section below.

Comments

TheTenth666
- 9:49am EDT - August 24th, 2012
- 1
Honestly, I don't think the "casual" non physical gaming will go much more up than now, people will have their 2 to 5 games on their phones and not much more ; so games older than 3 months will be forgotten and not downloaded/bought anymore and people will just stick with the 2/3 games they love and get anew game here and there - this is a hyper saturated market that will regulate itself more likely by going low.

The "non physical" gaming numbers should really be split by mobile phone games / console - PC games and DLC by really differentiating them not putting them in the same "non physical" package to make it a "super trendy phenomenon" as the habits are hugely different.
Bones311
- 1:08pm EDT - August 24th, 2012
- 2
I think that the constant talk about "download only" releases is starting to get people re-interested physical media. No one really thinks about what they have until they're about to lose it or have lost it. Now people are getting worried and are starting to voice more of an opinion on what they want, which seems to weigh heavily on the side of keeping physical media around for the long haul.
CB9K
- 4:01pm EDT - August 24th, 2012
- 3
Physcial media will exist so long as a portion of the gaming population requires it, which will likely be always. Since EA is out to get as much money as they can they will never stop selling physical media that reaches gamer demographics without access to purely digital distribution.

Personally, I could care less about the delivery method so long as I'm spending my money on a quality entertainment experience.

I think it speaks exactly to a company's true intentions when their major statements are reflections of sales projections versus quality of games. If you're set on selling X number of packaged goods and Y number of digital goods then, basically, you care 0 about quality and innovation. Because those arent required to reach X or Y. All you have to do is pass certification and sell, sell, sell. EA's good at making money. They're just kind of okay at making games.
Alpha2
- 3:14pm EDT - August 27th, 2012
- 4
The constant yammering about Digital Media gets pushed down the more they talk about it because people are starting to speak up and say they still want Physical media. It's the arrogance of their certainty that hurts them the most. They said 5 years ago Digital was going to kill Physical in 10 years, 5 years later it's still 10 years? It's just not going to happen that quickly as long as people prefer something they can sell, especially when these companies cant secure their online businesses enough to insure that someone isnt going to hack their cloud and erase their history like that guy that lost everything in his Apple iCloud across his mac book and his iphone. Gamers are materialistic, we want STUFF. yeah we might play the occasional download but they're generally inexpensive games that can be beating and forgotten in a month unless they have multiplayer that allows you to compete with friends.