The future is now! CEO of EA Jon Riccitiello talked to Edge Magazine about the number of downloads on PSN the company had for the full game, Burnout Paradise. According to him, since the racing game debuted on PSN last month, the game was downloaded over 20,000 times.

Considering the game came out months ago and it still topped 20,000 downloads — that would undoubtedly make the decision to make the full game available online, a success. Because so many people decided to purchase the game on PSN, Riccitiello confirmed the company will focus more on digital distribution and will invest about $150 million into it this year alone. He even discussed why he thinks it’s a better idea than the traditional packaging:

“In the future we see slower growth in the basic packaged goods business, and higher margins, greater growth and reduced cyclicality with these new direct-to-consumer businesses.”

Of course, if you’re expecting to see the full $150 million go into full games — don’t. A lot of the cash will also support add-ons, as well help fund MMO’s like Star Wars: The Old Republic. But nonetheless, it’s still exciting.

With the PSP and DSi having some kind of feature to let the consumer buy a game, and not forgetting Xbox Live, the era of owning a copy that you can hold in your hand, is quickly coming to an end. Not only are video games jumping on the digital bandwagon — so is the record industry with iTunes and soon we’ll be able to view full fledge movies on our TV using the Xbox with Netflix. Hell, you can already do it with a computer.

Overall, having the ability to downloaded blockbuster games is truly exciting. Just the potential of looking at a console’s full library of games online and then buying it is incredible. And the possibilities are endless.

it’s also better for the consumer in the end. And not just because we can own something right away, but because companies will make even more money — and the more money they make, the more games we’ll see come to the market.