Strategy-Analytics posts

The MMO game industry is a tricky one to enter and its business models keep evolving from monthly subscriptions to micro-transactions to a mix of both in some games. Now a new report from the firm Strategy Analytics claims that revenues from MMO games went over $5 billion in 2009 and will reach the $8 billion mark in 2010.

The report claims that in the US and European regions, MMO revenue growth is slowing down even as Blizzard's game World of Warcraft dominates the genre in those markets. However the Asian markets have shown much faster revenue growth with companies like NCsoft and Nexon reaping the benefits of the micro-transaction virtual items business model. The full report can be purchased for a mere $1,999.

According to a massive 27-page report released by Strategy Analytics (authored by Harvey Cohen and Barry Gilbert) one billion people will be logged into virtual worlds by 2017. That's strictly non-gaming virtual worlds, places like Second Life and Habbo Hotel, not MMOs or multiplayer frag fests.

The report ("Market Forecasts for Virtual World Experiences") predicts that 22 percent of all global broadband users will sign up for at least one virtual world over the next 10 years. If one billion real people do log in virtually they will bring with them eight billion real dollars in service opportunities. Someone somewhere is going to make a lot of money in the future.

Do we hear The Matrix calling?