EA's chief executive, John Riccitiello
Electronic Arts' chief executive, John Riccitiello, said late last week that the rate of mergers and acquisitions in the games industry is set to slow down.
Oh dear, John... read on.
Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit in New York, Riccitiello said of the games industry, "Is it ripe (for mergers), or has it already been picked? I would argue that it's been largely picked... That doesn't mean it's done. I think there will be more consolidation to come. But let's just say a lot has already happened."
A narrow escaped there for Riccitiello with the words "I think there will be more consolidation to come". He's probably only feeling a tad foolish now, following Activision and Vivendi Games' announcement of their consolidation, which will strip EA of its 'biggest third party publisher' crown.
Riccitiello also said that a whopping half the industry's game sales come from just three publishers, compared to eight or nine companies 10 years ago.
Riccitiello pointed to alternative revenue models as a potential source of future expansion for the industry, saying, "There's a lot of growth in what is the non-traditional arena, so that would be microtransactions, subscription revenue, ad revenue, new types of models, casual games."
EA just engineered a big deal of its own, with the company paying a reported £424 million for developers Pandemic and Bioware.
Source: Reuters
Oh dear, John... read on.
Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit in New York, Riccitiello said of the games industry, "Is it ripe (for mergers), or has it already been picked? I would argue that it's been largely picked... That doesn't mean it's done. I think there will be more consolidation to come. But let's just say a lot has already happened."
A narrow escaped there for Riccitiello with the words "I think there will be more consolidation to come". He's probably only feeling a tad foolish now, following Activision and Vivendi Games' announcement of their consolidation, which will strip EA of its 'biggest third party publisher' crown.
Riccitiello also said that a whopping half the industry's game sales come from just three publishers, compared to eight or nine companies 10 years ago.
Riccitiello pointed to alternative revenue models as a potential source of future expansion for the industry, saying, "There's a lot of growth in what is the non-traditional arena, so that would be microtransactions, subscription revenue, ad revenue, new types of models, casual games."
EA just engineered a big deal of its own, with the company paying a reported £424 million for developers Pandemic and Bioware.
Source: Reuters
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