23 million people play games online with friends, says Kotick

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed in Activision's pre-E3 2009 press conference last night that 23 million people are now playing games online with friends.

"The audience is changing," Kotick tells the audience (transcribed by Gamespot).

"An Activision study found that 12 million people played games online with friends 18 months [ago]. Today it's 23 million people."

"Clearly you can see that [gaming] has gone from the solitary to the social," he added.

Kotick went on to say he feels that new interfaces (read: peripherals) are the reason for this growth and that Activision will be a billion dollar business by 2012.

Attach rates are also on the rise with the average number of games purchased per console sold is up 17 percent over the last cycle of consoles, Kotick says.

Much more through the link.