Speaking to Reuters, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has been putting a positive spin on the slow Thanksgiving and Christmas season so far, and also pointing out that the digital games market is the new frontier.

"A couple of years ago EA embarked on a plan to really build itself up in this new frontier. In the last quarter alone we did $138 million in revenue and if EA's digital business were a stand alone company it would be the darling of Wall Street," Riccitiello said.

Moreover, he pointed out the shifting fortunes of the games industry, as the power shifts away from consoles and toward the digital market.

"It's new to compete in that sector, [and people] forget about all these online services that are out there; subscription, micro-transactions, games they find on Facebook or if they go to Pogo, or if they play Warhammer Online, or if they download games by way of their mobile phone or their iPhone.

"And if you all that stuff up it's almost half of the industry now," he continues. "Next year it's likely to be a larger share of the total industry and it'll be bigger than the console games all put together."

Clearly this is something EA has been thinking about for a while, and its recent acquisition of Playfish is intended to help position the company to take a more aggressive stance in this 'new frontier'.