EA’s John Riccitiello is sticking to the idea that the target market for gaming is now larger and changing.

“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,” he stated in an interview with Nightly Business Report.

“We have five times the audience we’ve ever had and it is growing in leaps and bounds. It’s no longer a niche.”

That’s right five biiiiiiilion. Feel free to exploit away.

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Today John Riccitiello has predicted that emerging online-based gaming models will be the dominate force over traditional console based gaming models by next year.

“When people think of games they traditionally think of the Xbox, PlayStation and Wii,” Riccitiello told Reuters in a video interview.

“They forget about all these online services that are out there – subscription, microstransactions, games they find on Facebook or if they go to Pogo. If you add all that stuff up, it’s almost half of the industry now. It’s about 40-45 per cent.

“Next year it’s likely to be a larger share of the total industry and it’ll be bigger than the console games all put together.”

Although he does reassure that packaged gamers aren’t going anywhere.

“We’re the world’s leader in packaged goods games, we make more of them than anybody,” he added. “We’re not suggesting that business is going away but there’s this other thing that’s growing.

“It’s our goal for that business to be as important as, and over time maybe more important than, our packaged goods business.”

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Fox Business sat down with EA’s John Riccitiello where he discussed everything about EA.

He spoke about the upcoming holiday season and how he is confident that EA will see a jump in sales for Christmas season.

They also talk about The Beatles: Rock Band, online market in China, Bioware, and how much he loves Dead Space.

I love how he says, “We don’t make things people have to have, we make things people want to have.” I don’t know, I have to have Dragon Age Origins and quite a few other upcoming games.

John Schappert

After just being on stage at E3 for Microsoft, John Schappert is leaving to work with Electronic Arts. He will be joining EA as the company’s Chief Operation Officer next month.

Kotaku got the scoop along with confirmation from Microsoft that Schappert will not be immediately replaced.

Schappert has been working on Xbox Live Software and services. Now he’ll basically be the number two person at EA.

“After nearly two decades working in or around this company, I’ve got EA in my blood,” Schappert said in EA’s press release. “This is a team that is intensely focused on quality and innovation. I’m looking forward to rejoining EA as chief operating officer and helping grow the business on new platforms and in new markets.”

Schappert’s new boss, John Riccitiello, celebrated his hire. “We are thrilled to welcome John Schappert back to EA,” he said in EA’s release. “He has a great track record as a leader and innovator in our industry. His years of experience with EA and in Microsoft’s Xbox business, provide him great insight into recognizing what consumers want.”

The new position will have Pleasants leading the global publishing organization and being responsible for central development and technology teams.

“This is a phenomenal opportunity and there’s no better time to be joining EA,” said Pleasants. “John Riccitiello and the team at EA have laid out the right plan to take EA forward by building innovative products, expanding digital revenues, and extending its strengths in global publishing. I’m excited about the challenge of leading these initiatives and working with this talented team.”