Gaming isn't mass market, says EA

Gaming is not mass market, though that could change one day. That's according to Electronic Arts chief creative officer Richard Hilleman, who told GamesIndustry International that television is the sector that drives the most demand.

"We have to make sure that game companies know what a mass market really is. We're not one yet," Hilleman said. "The closest thing we've had to a mass market, frankly, has been the social and mobile spaces."

"From my perspective, television is the mass market and we're the fringe," he added. "The challenge in front of us is does the customer think about it that way? Do they see us as so distinct we can't merge those two experiences?"

Hilleman explained that the game industry has a few lessons to learn about communicating with large audiences, the first of which is to steer clear of segmenting games into groups that are "too small to be relevant." Doing so puts companies at risk of losing player attention, he argued.

The connected TV experience is appealing to EA because of its mass market opportunities, Hilleman said. The TV is where gamers go when they put down their mobile devices, he said, making the platform an attractive business opportunity for the company.