EA: Tablets will overtake consoles

Electronic Arts expects tablets to outperform consoles as games devices in the near future, citing the increasing power and graphical quality today’s smart devices enjoy.

The comments came from CFO Blake Jorgensen, who predicts that tablets will become a major pillar of EA’s business going forward, according to GameSpot.

"What gets us most excited is the power, the computing power, of mobile devices and the speed at which that’s growing," he told attendees of the Technology, Internet and Media Conference. "What that might mean is that a tablet, three or four years from now, has more power than what a typical console has.

"That will open up a whole new set of people to console-style games that are much more immersive, much deeper, much more character-driven than simply a static mobile game that you might play for a small burst of time while you’re waiting for the bus.

Jorgensen added that EA is looking for ways to merge the two business models – something that "could be in your living room, could be on the bus, or could be in a friend’s house". The idea of a games model that is "much more portable" than today’s represents a "huge opportunity" for the publisher.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean the publisher will be backing away from traditional consoles like Xbox One and PS4, with new instalments of Battlefield, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge and more currently in the works.