"It is an absolute imperative for the company to go online as fast as possible, and the more projects we can do that have scale and quality the better," said the publishing executive to VG247.

The statements come on the heels of the announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the highly anticipated MMO from EA subsidiary BioWare Austin. "It's a key strategy for the company to drive our online businesses as aggressively as possible. It's clearly the future, and the future is now," Gibeau added.

"If you look at Asia, you look at where people are spending their time, where I play games: it's just the place we want to be. What's so powerful about the technology is connected gameplay, is so cool for our creators." Online games are very successful in Asia--a region not known for intellectual property enforcement--and are often seen in the West as a solution to DRM and piracy controversies.

For Gibeau, the new Star Wars MMO and Battlefield Heroes are just the beginning. "The games--actually designing and building the games--are just starting to scratch the surface in terms of how you can entertain in a massively multiplayer environment, a connected environment," he said.