We all know that the iPad has been nothing short of a phenomenal consumer success. In terms of sales and mindshare, Apple dominates the tablet market with a product that’s barely 18 months old. When the iPad was first introduced, the highly-portable device was automatically seen as the perfect gaming device— with big names in the App Store, like Angry Birds, creating iPad-optimized versions of their popular gaming titles.
Now, the CEO of Electronic Arts has chimed in and confirmed that EA’s fasting growing platform is not a traditional console- but instead the iPad.
Speaking with IndustryGamers, EA CEO John Riccitiello shared his opinion that consoles are no longer the “dominant force” in the gaming world. Instead, the success of the gaming experience is heavily based on a device’s mobility— something the iPad accomplishes very well.
“Consoles used to be 80% of the industry as recently as 2000. Consoles today are 40% of the game industry, so what do we really have?
I think that the pattern against which Nintendo is no longer resonating is over anyway. 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.”
With 50% less revenue coming from consoles in the last 11 years, an obvious focus has been placed on the mobile space. No other tablet is touching the iPad in sales right now, and the App Store’s success is largely based on the plethora of games that are available (just ask your local Tiny Wings addict).
With the iPad 2’s A5 processor, more robust gaming experiences, like Infinity Blade, are starting to be offered at much more affordable prices than what the console market can offer. As Apple continues to boost internal specs on the iPhone and iPad, App Store games will begin to be on par with featured titles on consoles like the PS3 and Xbox.
What do you think about the iPad’s growing dominance in the mobile gaming market? Do you see other competitors, like Nintendo’s Wii U, standing a chance?
[via The Loop]
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
13 responses to “EA: The iPad is Our Fastest Growing Platform”
I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://to.ly/aQrp
How ’bout you leave your spam out of these forums.
What’s the racing game on the iPad pictured above?
It’s a bot. different name but same message on almost every cult of mac story.
based on that, and how often you can’t even load the pages on this site, I think the Cult of Mac web site is probably running on a G5 in Leander’s garage.
Of course its the fastest growing, its a brand new platform.
Interesting… Hope this means they might put out more and higher quality games on the iPad then.
Like a real and proper command and conquer for example, the mobile version of Red Alert is pretty laughable, and the Red Alert series (PC) isnt a all to advanced RTS to begin with…
Also, “EA’s
fasting growing platform is not a traditional console- but instead the
iPad.”
Fasting? That word just doesn’t seem to fit in that sentence…
The usual idea is that you would use NFC to set up the link between the two devices and then do an automatic hand over to a different protocol for doing the actual transfer of data – eg Bluetooth,iphone 5
I feel Nintendo has to play catchup given the plethora of titles on App Store; and also, the multi-functions of an iPad