EA digital revenues pass $1 billion in 2011

Electronic Arts has made much about its digital content strategy over the past couple of years as it seeks to shift a substantive portion of its business away from retail. To that end, the company achieved a major milestone in 2011, as EA announced this week that it recorded revenues of $1 billion from its digital businesses during the calendar year.

EA has augmented its digital strategy in a number of ways of late. The company has invested heavily in online social and casual gaming, making big-time purchases such as Playfish, Chillingo, and PopCap. EA also recently launched its digital distribution portal Origin, in addition to pioneering downloadable content strategies such as Season Pass and Online Pass.

With 2012 under way, EA is making a handful of changes to its digital business. Namely, EA is doing away with its EA Interactive Label, which had previously been the home of the company's social and casual games. EA said that as digital content now permeates the entire company, this label has been folded into other divisions.

As part of this move, EA said that it is parting ways with EA Interactive Label head Barry Cottle. In a related announcement, Zynga announced that it has hired Cottle as its new executive vice president of business and corporate development. Cottle joins other EA veterans at Zynga, including John Schappert and Jeff Karp.