Peter-warman
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Newzoo releases 2011 MMO Games Market Report
Newzoo, a research and consultation firm for the gaming industry, has released its 2011 MMO Games Market Report, and it includes some interesting -- albeit not terribly surprising -- statistics on the state of the MMO genre. The study found that only about 36% of 39 million players in "European and emerging markets" played games with a "sci-fi or space theme." This is especially relevant considering the next big player in the MMO market -- Star Wars: The Old Republic, for any rock-dwellers -- falls into this category. Peter Warman, Newzoo's CEO, remarked on the matter: You will not catch me making any predictions about Star Wars: The Old Republic. But I am very curious to see how much F2P SciFi gamers EA will be able to convert to P2P gamers and what part will come from outside the current pool of SciFi gamers, being complete newcomers as well as the subscribers to EVE Online, WoW, RIFT or any other triple A P2P MMO game. With big F2P SciFi titles also scheduled to launch pretty soon I expect to see significant differences in uptake of the various SciFi titles in US, Europe and Emerging markets. How will his prediction play out? We'll be finding out soon enough.
Free-to-play spending poised to become the majority in the US
Free-to-play is on the rise -- we all knew that, but perhaps we didn't quite grasp how much it's gone up. Gamasutra reports that online players have boosted their F2P spending a whopping 24% this year over last, with F2P revenues cornering 47% -- versus 39% in 2010 -- of the MMO market in the US. Analysts predict that we're on track to see $1.2 billion spent on free-to-play MMOs in 2011. This surge of F2P spending isn't just confined to North America, however. Europe, Asia, and other emerging countries already see a majority of MMO spending dedicated to F2P versus other business models. The report states that US players spend 26 million hours daily in MMOs. Your average US player is 84% likely to be enjoying browser-based titles and 50% likely to be invested in a client-based game. NewZoo CEO Peter Warman thinks 2012 will be a decisive year for F2P in more ways than one: "Recent lay-offs and the sudden death of LEGO Universe are serious warnings for the MMO games industry. Success will also strongly depend on how MMO companies extend their unique gameplay and IP across other game platforms, specifically mobile."
Russian MMO market to continue growing through next year
For a long time, China has been the country to look to for MMO growth. The country's rapid acquisition of technology and popular internet cafes has led to an explosion in growth and online gaming. But China isn't the only country steadily rising in quantities. According to a study by Newzoo, the Russian game market is already a $1.5 billion industry, with $270 million of that going directly toward MMOs, making our favorite genre tied with general PC gaming for overall spending. Among the more interesting upshots of the study are the fact that women compose 49% of the overall gamer market in Russia, a remarkably even split considering the setup of most developed nation; 69% of the spent money goes toward online or mobile games. In many ways, the Russian gaming market has already overtaken the European markets in terms of overall numbers and spending, according to Newzoo CEO Peter Warman. The company also created a useful set of infographics regarding the overall breakdown of data. [Source: Newzoo press release]
