Electronic Arts' senior vice president of European publishing has confirmed that the company is again leading the territory, but says that the market has been disappointing

"I have to say we’ve been a little bit disappointed," Jens Uwe Intat told MCV. "When we were planning 2009 we were looking at market growth of around 5 per cent in packaged goods, but what we’ve seen is a decrease of about 10 per cent."

"But, at the same time, we’re very happy because in this shrinking market we increased our share and so now we are back to the leading position again in Europe, which is a nice place to be. We actually lost it to Nintendo in 2008 but we’ve gained it back and we’ll have to see if we can hold it until Christmas, but we’re confident we can. Across Europe we’re tracking at about 19 per cent market share, which is two points up.”

EA has also faced stiff global competition from Activision in recent years, but things may change again in 2010 with EA CEO John Riccitiello and EA Sports' Peter Moore stating that they expect Digital downloads to come into their own next year.

[via MCV]