In a news report that would do Captain Obvious proud, Games Press is announcing casual gamers will generate more cash than the full time crowd.
With this type of thinking, no wonder we get the same games recylced over and over.
From Games Press:
"Screen Digest forecasts that the total online PC games market will top $1.1bn in the West in 2004 and reach $2.2bn by 2007. Nick Gibson, a games industry analyst and the author of the report states: "The casual online gaming market has matured rapidly since the end of the dotcom boom era and a number of new, high margin revenue models have emerged that have, following a three year hiatus, returned rapid growth to this sector. Amazingly, every single one of the major casual games service providers reported that this growth was being predominantly fuelled by middle-aged and female gamers, the antithesis of the MMOG and hard-core gaming markets."
These studies make me wonder if companies care about making money the old fashioned way, or are looking for a fly by night big dollar solution for peanuts. In the copycat world of Online games, someone is bound to cause a paradigm shift, and the initial company that gets it right could be the next Microsoft.
Online games are the future of entertainment, and it is still a mostly untapped reservoir. As technology and broadband spread across the country and the world, the revenues seen from online games will blow away these guesses.
The higher demographic are women and 30something men, so why do we still see games predominately marketed and made with a single niche in mind?
I have ideas I think would revolutionize the industry, as do others, I'm sure. The problem is how does one realize this dream, without it being stolen by software companies with no soul, but bottomless bank accounts?
Then again, looking at how Asherons Call 2 turned out, maybe limitless resources do not enable a company to buy success.
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