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EA CEO John Riccitiello: iPad is our fastest growing platform

Consoles have shrunk to 40% of firm's business

EA CEO John Riccitiello: iPad is our fastest growing platform
Given the tone of EA's recent quarterly report, it's not surprising to hear the publisher talking big when it comes to portable platforms.

The firm's decision to give its digital output an equal billing in the report came across loud and clear, tying in neatly with EA's latest venture: social network meets digital games store Origin.

It all makes CEO John Riccitiello's revelation that iPad is EA's fastest growing platform less surprising than it might otherwise have been, and in his view, indicative of the changing nature of the industry.

Changing times

"Consoles used to be 80 percent of the industry as recently as 2000," Riccitiello said in the interview, given before the release of the firm's quarterly earnings report.

"Consoles today are 40 percent of the game industry, so what do we really have?"

Riccitiello's point centred around the idea that the traditional transition from one console generation to another every 5 years is "not a particularly smart way to run an industry".

Smartphones and tablets, he claimed, have successfully disruptive this model.

Nudging Nintendo

"We have a new hardware platform and we're putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn't exist 18 months ago."

But the impact of iOS and co. stretches beyond home console, leading Nintendo to - according to many - launch 3DS out of sync.

"Nintendo is off cycle with what? I mean, the point of reference is gone," he concluded.

"And so Nintendo is bringing out a new platform that brings together some of what we’re learning from new media and new platforms like the iPad and then integrating that with a console. It's the perfect time for that in the industry."

EA's quarterly results showed a 9 percent rise in EA Mobile's revenues, hitting $57 million.

[source: Industry Gamers]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.