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Online Games to Quadruple by 2011

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sextuple-sounded-too-racy dept.

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.'"

4 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Game Bloat by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "'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.'"

    The problem with fragmenting is a symptom. A symptom of a bloated market, flowing with a variety of games but little true innovation. When you can't differentiate your product through innovative gameplay, your going to struggle. The bright side of this, for us gamers, is that is bloat will equalize itself, kill off the weak product offerings and help facilitate real innovation. That is where the real growth will occure, not more fish in the sea but bigger fish.

    --
    Demented But Determined.
    1. Re:Game Bloat by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I would agree that diversity is good, but then I look out there... and all I see is a sea of clones and crap. As I said it is temporary, however, eventually the good will beat out the garbage and the bloat will subside. When that happens, it will be because a few companies really innovated. This is not some final state; the market will bloat out again, copying the successful games and starting the cycle all over again. I guess we're just looking at the same cycle in two different ways.

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      Demented But Determined.
  2. Finite amount of money... by Kumiorava · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Has it ever occurred to these researchers and analysts that there is only so much money people are willing to put on games and entertainment. All gaming areas seem to get similar market growths, which makes the overall spending on games to increase too much to be realistic. I think they might be right about quadrubling the consumption but I doubt that market will be that much. These numbers mean that 100 million people need to subscribe to 10/month service. Compare that to WOW, which has "only" 6 million subscribers.

    Besides my own experiences with WOW makes me think twice before subscribing and getting involved with an online game. I'm sure there are others who are not willing to spend 100+ a year for one single game.

  3. The real reason is freedom by Zigurd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The real reason online games are growing is freedom: No restrictions based on the size of the company. No ESRB. No Wal-Mart decency standards. No industry self-censorship. No distributors and publishers colluding with the bluenoses. No laws banning violence or sexual content. And, if such laws were to appear, the games would move to jurisdictions where they could not be shut down.

    Freedom of expression isn't just a nice ideological point, it's profitable.

    --
    I wrote parts of this stuff