Wilson: EA Sports to continue supporting retail as long as it's viable

EA Sports' senior vice president of worldwide development, Andrew Wilson, has said the firm will continue to release boxed games as long as it continues to be a viable business. However, he doesn't feel consumers shopping at GAME and GameStop stores as much today as in the past.

Speaking at Develop today, Wilson said 45 percent of revenue derived by games sales were digital in 2010, as Netflix an Amazon's Kindle are just examples of how "companies that put control in the hands of the user" are quickly winning in a marketplace where retail was once king.

"There is still a business of $60 games sold at GAME and GameStop - that's still legitimate for now," he said. "I won't predict when that will die. I won't prophesise when games on discs will go away, because the reality is that as long as gamers continue to line up and buy them we will make them.

"But the amount of people on Facebook, on PSN and Xbox Live is growing. There is a shift here. If we don't get ahead of it, we will find ourselves in trouble.

"We have seen the Blockbusters and the HMVs change before our eyes. The corporate graveyard is littered with companies, mediums and entities that resisted where the consumer wanted to go."

Thanks, MCV.