ELECTRONIC ARTS expects revenue from digital downloads of its games to overtake sales of boxed game software within a few years and is focused on expanding its mobile and free-to-play products, its chief operating officer Peter Moore said.

EA, and major rivals Activision Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive Software, are struggling to sustain revenue growth as gamers migrate to casual and social games on the internet and on mobile devices.

EA’s business model is evolving as it increases revenue from online and mobile gaming, Moore said. The California-based company publishes such games as Battlefield, Star Wars and FIFA Soccer.

As hundreds of thousands of gamers gather in Cologne, Germany, this week for the Gamescom 2012 trade fair, investors doubt whether traditional games distributors are up for competition from the likes of Zynga, which distributes the large majority of its games via Facebook.

“This fiscal year we have 41 social mobile and free-to-play games on the slate, and later in the year we might make announcements about more games coming,” Moore said.

The company gets revenue from free-to-play games when gamers buy enhancements to improve game play.

The firm is in talks with Microsoft to bring mobile games to the next version of Windows as it sees the platform as “important” to its handset strategy.

Researchers at NPD Group estimated that US sales of boxed games dropped 20 per cent in July to $548 million (€446 million), accounting for roughly 50 per cent of the $1.1 billion in total consumer spending on computer games.

– (Reuters/Bloomberg)