mmo-budget
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The Daily Grind: Do you have an MMO budget?
One of free-to-play's many annoyances -- to me, at least -- is the fact that I have to add up various micropayments if I want to accurately track my MMO budget. With subscriptions, it's an easy $15 line item, whereas with F2P titles that don't offer an elite/legendary/accelerated/spiffy/member option, I'm forced to enter $4.99 for an armor set here, $9.99 for a gambling pack there, you get the idea. Or I could just say screw it and buy all the incidentals without bothering to keep track, which is no doubt the dream scenario for game company accountants. I don't do that, though, and as a result I know exactly how much money I spend on MMOs in a given period of time. What about you, Massively readers? Do you have an MMO budget, or do you just buy what you want and get on with it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
One-fifth of US game spending goes to MMOs and game portals
It's no secret that MMOs have started to see a larger and larger share of the market, but the actual amount is always a difficult number to pin down. Gamasutra recently reported on a study by TNS and Gamesindustry.com, a pair of market research firms, which found that about 20% of all US game spending goes to either MMOs or online game portals. That's a fifth of all spending in the country, and with the amount of overall spending in the US that's a rather significant figure. Of course, MMOs are still small fry compared to, say, the console budget, which dominates at nearly three-fifths of the overall spending. However, it's worth considering that MMO spending is frequently going to be a $15 monthly subscription rather than a $50 one-time purchase -- a significant disparity in terms of overall budget. It's also interesting to note that MMOs, once a small subset of the overall PC gaming market, are gaining ground as a market demographic unto themselves. The full report can be found here, with further information on the methodology of the study and the preferred payment methods of the respondents.
