During the Reuters Media Summit in New York, John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, made some comments regarding company acquisitions and merges within the gaming industry.
Company acquisitions shouldn’t be a surprise to Riccitiello since EA acquired BioWare and Pandemic Studios two months ago for $855 million.
"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."
Instead, Riccitiello believes the gaming market will expand through nontraditional areas, such as micro-transactisions, casual games and gaming subscriptions. The casual games market bloomed to $2.25 billion annually and EA formed a whole gaming division dedicated to producing casual games.
"There’s a lot of growth in what is the nontraditional arena, so that would be micro-transactions, subscription revenue, ad revenue, new types of models, casual games."
Lastly, Riccitiello gave a positive outlook on company acquisitions. "Gaming companies hunting for deals would focus on strong games and strong creative teams that are the best guarantee of successful games in the future."
Hot off the press, Blizzard and Activision announced they’ll merge in an $18 billion deal. Think the CEO should eat his words?
