|
Global
News
April
18, 2003
Gaming
presents budding, new industry
UNITED
STATES -- With hundreds of millions - and eventually
billions - of dollars up for grabs, online gaming represents
a budding new industry, which is just beginning to spread
its wings, reports In-Stat/MDR. It finds that while
online gaming won't take over the world, even a moderate
number of gamers (such as 10 percent of the game consoles),
playing for relatively short periods of time (five hours
a week), would consume more than 5 percent of all of
the American backbone traffic by the end of 2003.
Online
gaming is a real industry, which will make real money,
and has some significant consequences for the companies
involved. Lot of companies are working very hard to
grow this industry quickly. The odds are that they will
help to move things along, faster than some expect.
Of all the companies out there, In-Stat/MDR reported
that broadband service providers are at the most risk
for not only missing an opportunity for additional revenues
in the long run, but also having their networks being
negatively affected by this online gaming trend, in
the short run, if they do not act soon.
In-Stat/MDR
also found that:
- Roughly,
9 percent of the traffic sent back and forth over
the US backbone was due to online gaming in 2002.
As the number of gamers climb, the amount of time
they spend online will also grow. As the performance
of gaming silicon improves, it will create an environment
requiring faster connectivity. Microsoft's Xbox Online
service is already a broadband only program, so this
will likely be one of the big areas where high throughputs
will yield a truly stunning experience.
- All
three of the major console makers have some kind of
online gaming strategy. By far, Microsoft's Xbox Live
program is the boldest. It is currently the only one
that mandates a yearly subscription, but it is also
a broadband only program that is likely to pay dividends
long term.
- The
combined data throughput for both paid and free online
console gamers will top 285 petabits a month by 2007.
At the same time, the paid console subscriptions will
bring in just under $650 million. However, as it currently
stands, none of that money will end up with the broadband
providers that are handling these hundreds of petabits
of additional data.
- While
free online console players will outnumber the paid
through to 2004, in 2005, that trend is expected to
be reversed as other console makers adopt the "pay-to-play"
model.
- The
online console market will see a 9 percent average
penetration rate by the end of 2007. Places with high
broadband access, such as the US, Japan and Korea,
are likely to have higher than average penetration
rates.
Contact:
Instat/MDR
Tel: 1-480-609-4533
Email: rvogelei@reedbusiness.com
Web: www.instat.com
|
