Online Games to Quadruple by 2011

ches_grin writes "A new report from DFC Intelligence predicts that the online game market will quadruple over the next five years, growing from $3.4 billion to more than $13 billion. Although previous studies have pointed to Asia as the leader in online gaming, this report suggests that North America may take the lead. MMO are expected to be the genre that drives growth, although casual games are also predicted to grow. Despite the predicted growth, the gaming market is not entirely rosy: 'On the downside, even with market growth many companies are likely to struggle to become profitable. A big problem is that the market is becoming more fragmented among different companies, types of products and markets.'"

Comments

Half of this will come from:

[MrSquirrel]

World of Starcraft.

Difference between MMO's and Casual Games

[Drakin020]

I love how they seperate MMO's From Non-MMO's. They used the Term "MMO's and Casual Games" This would lead you to believe that all MMO's are not casual but rather lives that people live. There needs to be more Casual MMO's such as EVE Online, which doesnt credit you on Playing for 6 hours in one day. Rather is credits you on how long you have had your account online or off.

Skills are raised but training in that spacific skill. The skill will complete in a set ammount of time. Certin attributes affect it but only with minor numbers. You can then log off and still have the skill training. This is great for the casual gamer and is why EVE is ranked one of the top played MMO's.

Other MMO's need to learn from this and start creating more casual style MMO's