EA: 'Hollywood admits running scared of games'

The boss of games giant Electronic Arts has said the video game industry has got other forms of entertainment media running scared, particularly movies.

John Riccitiello told the Financial Times: "The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks...is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game. I don't think I've ever heard of that before.

"There is more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There's a big reset happening now."

The games chief, who is currently working with director Steven Spielberg on puzzle game Boom Blox, said what is happening in the industry is similar to what happened to movies in the 1920s.

"It feels like what movie moguls might have seen in the 1920s and said: 'Hey, we've got talkies now, where is it going?' I feel like we've stepped through a time window where our games are so compelling and seem so real," Riccitiello said.

Electronic Arts has been named the world leader in video games after it saw its revenues hit $3 billion dollars in 2007.