Riccitiello: Global gaming audience now "at least" 1 billion

JR's called it. The EA boss has claimed in an NBR interview that the global gaming audience is now greater than 1 billion.

"Conservatively, if I add up mobile users that play games, social network people that play games, people that play PC games online in Asia, all this stuff, this new audience: there's at least a billion people gaming today, compared to a couple of hundred million just five years ago.

"So we have five times the audience we've ever had and it's growing in leaps and bounds. And it's no longer a niche."

The advent of digital had brought a "torrent of new consumers" into games.

The exec went on to reiterate his view that digital gaming now accounts for around 40 percent of all games business.

That's a good interview. Well worth a watch.