A new study has forecast that online console revenue will hit $583 million this year. The reason for the jump is that gamers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with purchasing add-ons and episodic or small games online. IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon had this to say about the growth of the market:

“By the end of 2007, over 31 percent of online capable videogame consoles in North America will be in active online use by 14 million online console gamers,”

Pidgeon also states that the most revenue is generated by subscription services like Xbox Live, downloadable content and advertising. The increase in revenue represents the largest growth in the console software sector.

“In North America alone, online console revenue will triple from $133 million in 2006 to $583 million in 2007,”

He suggests that traditional retailers will have to be quick to adapt to the trend with other methods of sale.

“In 2007, game-related downloadable content derived from manufacturers’ proprietary online console networks will reach $296 million, while subscription revenue will increase from $107 million in 2006 to $277 million. While software sales are still significant — increasing from $8 billion in 2006 to $9.5 billion this year — content sold, accessed or downloaded online to videogame consoles over manufacturers’ proprietary networks will remain the industry’s most exciting growth opportunity in this hardware cycle.”

via Next Generation

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This entry was posted by Andrew Cummings on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 5:24 am and is filed under Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.