Of the 1.1 million SimCity sales, about 54 percent were digital copies purchased through Origin or other download services, EA said. Origin digital sales alone made up 44 percent of all copies purchased.

"SimCity is one of the storied brands in gaming, and Maxis delivered a game re-envisioned and engineered for the online age," EA chief operating officer Peter Moore said in a statement.

Some may contest that claim, as during the game's North American and European launches earlier this month.

As recompense for SimCity's hobbled launch, EA .

SimCity's arrival helped Origin set a new record for peak concurrent users at 1.3 million "and rising," according to EA. By comparison, competitor Valve's Steam service has 4.8 million concurrent players and a peak concurrent userbase of 5.7 million.

EA also revealed several other SimCity statistics for the game's first two weeks. Since launch, players have logged more than 15 million hours of online gameplay and built more than 5.7 million original cities. In all, players have created 780 million buildings and SimCity mayors together have built enough road and railroad tracks to circle the globe 40,000 times, EA said.

SimCity will launch on Mac later this year. For more, check out .

From: www.gamespot.com

"There's no question that going freemium was the right way to go," Earl said. "The vocal minority lashed out at freemium. We respect them and understand, but the market has spoken. That's just where things are going."

Earl revealed that first-week downloads of Real Racing 3 exceeded the total for the past two games combined. In addition, 350 million races have been completed since launch, with 25 million completed every day. On top of this, EA said gamers are spending an average of 25 minutes per day playing the title.

Earl declined to say how many copies of Real Racing 3 have been downloaded so far or how much revenue the game has brought in. However, he did note that he was "vindicated early" from a financial perspective.

This is not the first time an EA executive has sung the praises of microtransaction-supported games. EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said last month that consumers are "" and that this business model will be built into more and more of the company's games moving forward.

Before that, EA chief operating officer Peter Moore said he believes . He likened the business model to a clothing store like The Gap.

"It's free to me to walk into The Gap in my local shopping mall. They don't charge me to walk in there," he said at the time. "I can walk into The Gap, enjoy the music, look at the jeans and what have you, but if I want to buy something I have to pay for it."

From: www.gamespot.com