Wow! Online Game Market to Reach $29 Billion by 2016

DFC Intelligence Forecasts Worldwide Online Game Market to Reach $29 Billion by 2016

June 23, 2011, San Diego, CA

DFC Intelligence announced the release of its latest Online Game Market Forecasts that estimate overall worldwide revenue for online games delivered via the PC or a video game console is expected to grow from $15.7 billion in 2010 to nearly $29 billion in 2016. This includes revenue from subscriptions, online usage, online advertising in games and digital downloads of game products.

According to DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole, “Our overall forecasts for the online game industry have increased slightly. However, we have lowered our forecasts for online games on consoles and raised our forecasts for online games via the PC."

The PC platform continues to pioneer online business models and online game revenue for the PC is expected to be near $23 billion in 2016. Social networks like Facebook are helping to expand the distribution reach of PC games on a global basis. Furthermore, consumer acceptance of new business models such as buying digital goods continues to grow at a rapid pace. Revenue from subscriptions, online usage and virtual items is expected to increase 75% from 2010 to reach nearly $17 billion by 2016.

Video game console systems are also expected to increasingly embrace online business models. However, the growth on this side is no looking to be slower than expected. “The Wii U is the only new console system on the horizon and Nintendo has never had a major focus on online games," said Cole. "More importantly the short lifecycle and fragmented nature of console hardware can make it hard for companies to try creative new business models." The recent attacks on services like the PlayStation Network are also likely to mean manufacturers and distributors in the console space take a more conservative attitude.

The new report, Online Game Market Forecasts , is part of an ongoing series of detailed reports on the global game industry. The 170-page report also comes with Excel spreadsheets that include a detailed breakout of online games revenue by platform, region, business model and genre (view the table of contents). Subscribers to DFC's research package services can get access to additional reports, historical data, regular updates, more detailed breakouts by country and genre and the ability to search the online DFC database and download data to Excel spreadsheets.

To sign-up for a free sample of the monthly DFC Dossier report, or an overview of DFC research, contact Ozzie Monge at omonge at dfcint dot com or go to www.dfcint.com.

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