It's mostly amazingly good news for EA, following its recent quarterly financial reports. In fact, it's pretty much the company's best period ever - and the outlook is looking just as rosey.
So much for piracy killing the industry, huh?
Bitterness aside, EA's profit comes on the back of Mass Effect 3, SSX, FIFA Street 4 and Kingdoms of Amalur, Reckoning, while Battlefield 3 has over six million players in the period, making it a force to be reckoned with as well.
Game downloads through Origin are solid, lead by ME 3 and The Old Republic, and the Origin service overall is considered a big success, with 11 million registered users, and sales totalling around $150 million since launch less than a year ago.
The possibly bad news comes from The Old Republic however. Players are down from a launch high of 1.7 million players to 1.3 million. MMOs typically experience a serious post-launch drop-off, as players don't keep playing once their first free month expires, so the game could level off.
Personally, I've got a less than sanguine feeling about the game's long term potential, but I would love to be proved wrong.
The run up to the next generation of console hardware is also on, with EA investing $80 million into games development for the next PlayStation, Xbox and Wii-U.
In a related conference call, Ars Technica is also reporting that the company expects to release new Need for Speed and Dead Space titles this year.
In other news, I am in the wrong side of the industry! Check out the full report here if you want to be stunned by a tonne of data.
