EA’s Frank Gibeau has said PC may well be the platform of choice in the immediate future of gaming.
“PC retail may be a big problem, but PC downloads are awesome,” Gibeau told Gamasutra.
“The margins are much better and we don’t have any rules in terms of first party approvals. From our perspective, it’s an extremely healthy platform. … It’s totally conceivable it will become our biggest platform.”
Describing the PC userbase as “gigantic”, the EA Games president nominated freemium models as the next big thing.
“If you look at the way people play in Asia, PC is the model,” he said. “I think that free to play model is coming to the west in a big way.”
But what of consoles? Gibeau said we’re some way off a new generation, and even if it were to arrive now, it won’t be a game changer.
“Obviously, more computing horsepower is nice, but to be honest, the Xbox 360 and PS3 still have a lot of horsepower that hasn’t been tapped,” he said.
“I really think the next innovation is in the input device, but even more importantly, what will the online experience be like?”
Echoing CEO John Riccitiello’s comments at several recent events, Gibeau said EA is able to straddle the line between traditional and non-traditional publishing.
“There’s a lot of transition going on in this industry and we’re really well positioned for that. … We feel like we’re on the offensive. We’re moving from a fire-and-forget packaged goods model to an online services model.”
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