When $1B in Online-Game Sales Isn't

jvm writes "On Curmudgeon Gamer a new analysis article by Kyle Orland examines the recent announcement by the NPD Group that sales of "online-enabled console games" reached $1 billion dollars last year. A rudimentary analysis of the numbers behind the numbers shows that at least a third of those online-enabled games probably aren't being (and probably can't be) played online."

Comments

Discrepancy between blurb and article

[Pluvius]

The article does say that these online-enabled games aren't being played online (which makes sense), but not that they can't be played online (which doesn't). What it says is that not everyone has the hardware and/or server subscription required to play online.

Rob

Re:Discrepancy between blurb and article

[Metal_Demon]

Well actually if you look at the X-Box many games are "online-enabled", but can't be played online. They just let you keep track of a score or have a buddy list or some crap like that. So in other words there are in fact games that are online-enabled and can't be played online.

Re:Discrepancy between blurb and article

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention sales of online-enabled PS2 games which wildly exceed the sales of the PS2 modem/broadband connector.

Re:That's Nothing!

[jvmatthe]

I think that the official NPD reports cost several hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars. I haven't actually investigated myself, but this is what I've been told when I've asked friends (in the game industry) about them.

That said, there are apparently occasional leaks that allow you to get some of the raw data itself.

Sports games online... and others too

[Leffe]

Almost all of the growth in the online-capable console game category has occurred in the past two years. Sales of these games, which include titles for Sony Corp.'s Playstation 2, Microsoft Corp.'s X-Box and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s GameCube, have seen the majority of sales in the shooter and sport games super genres, with sport games leading the charge. In 2002, sport games commanded 69 percent of the online-capable video games market, while the shooter genre captured 22 percent. In 2003, sport games claimed 51 percent of the market, while shooter games remained at 22 percent. However, other genres began forming the online-capable video games landscape in 2003 with racing games taking 15 percent and role playing games taking 4 percent.

50% sports games, eh? I think we should just make it half a billion from games that are played online then :)

No, I don't really like the idea of playing such games online, and I seriously doubt many indeed do. Sports games are meant to be played face to face, and possibly with some fists.

Re:Sports games online... and others too

[Anonymous Coward]

That reminds me of when my roomate was playing NFL 2k4 on Xbox live.

The guy he was playing against intercepted one of his passes. Then, he kept showing the instant replay of the interception over and over again. After about two minutes of watching that replay over and over from different angles and hearing the guy talk shit to him, my roomate turned it off.

If I did that to him while playing it in the same room, I'd better be ready to dodge a flying controller and a few fists.

Online games need a "shock player for being an ass" option.

Re:Sports games online... and others too

[bigman2003]

Sports games are some of the best to play on-line. And if you are involved in XSN (Xbox) tournaments, then it is a very good complement to having a bunch of friends over to play.

I've spent many, many hours playing Amped 2, Top Spin, and Links 2004 on-line.

They're all filled with a lot of 'normal' people, not jackasses who want to spend their time yelling, screaming, and cussing.

Links, combined with XSN tournaments, is absolutely incredible fun on-line. Fantasy sports league meets really good game. This game by itself is a good reason to have the Live service. Golf may not sound thrilling, but it makes a GREAT on-line game. And with options like 'Fast-Play', you can get through a round pretty quickly.

Top Spin is great on-line, as long as you get an opponent who doesn't have a lot of lag. My ratio of 'fast' (no lag) games, to 'slow' (bad lag) is about 5:1. And I think that half of the people with bad lag are jackasses who do it on purpose to force you to quit, so they get the 'win'. But these games are fairly uncommon.

I would guess that the vast majority of players in those 3 games are really happy with the on-line experience. But, I would never even try to play Counterstrike on Live, because that game HAS to be full of 13 year old jackasses with nothing better to do than try to make the game suck for everyone else.

PSO/GC

[whiteSanjuro]

Phantasy Star Online (Ep 1 & 2) is not the only game for GameCube that has official Internet support. PSO Episode 3 also does.

The problem with online games

[Mr.Dippy]

I've given up on online games because it gets tiresome having listen/read l33t speak by some 13 year old. Oh and god help you if your not the shiznit in WarCraft. That 13 year old will cuse you out and threathen to tell all of his script kiddie friends how much suck. When that happens, which does a lot, I log off and go have a beer and then have sex with my girlfriend.

Re:The problem with online games

[timftbf]

The Internet is full of people of many different ages. It's just the ones who haven't managed to advance beyond "j00 ch34ting f4g! I w1ll 0wn ur b0x & k1c| ur l4m3 h0m0 4ss!! d00d!" who can reasonably be assumed not to be over 13.

I automatically assume that anyone on the Internet who can string a coherent sentence together in something resembling standard English is not 13. But maybe that's just me ;)

Regards,
Tim.