In a report on CNN, John Riccitello, president and COO of Electronic Arts, suggested that future iterations of games under the EA Sports label, such as Madden NFL or NBA Live, may have some sort of online subscription model, pointing out that the potential to make new revenue is there. However, he also added that online as it currently stands with the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube only presents a small amount of potential for additional revenue.

　　"I think in this generation there's only very modest revenue potential for online play," Riccitello said during a conference call to discuss the company's earnings. "What has yet to be proven, but I think it represents a significant revenue opportunity if we can play it out properly, is added revenue generation capability in the back end. So instead of just selling Madden at $49, we may be able to generate subscription [revenue] on the back of that. At this point, that's frankly more speculative than it is substantive, but that's what we're going to be working on over the balance of the cycle."

　　We'll post more as it develops.