Re: RE: UKNM: online gaming stats?

[Manou Marzban]

As in the past three years on UKNM - I only get excited when the subject of

games crop up or when we are slagging someone off for even thinking of email

mailing lists.  Here is my 2 (possibly 3) cents worth on games:  Most

gamers - of serious mind - play MUD-based role playing games.  These have

been around for years, and although non-graphic, some MUDs have more than

10,000 members.  Thanks to DSL/broadband solutions in the US, advanced

graphics capabilities and software that allows for fully rendered 3-D

animation, many MUDs are taking on graphic interfaces and avatar-based

environments to compliment the complexity of their virtual worlds.  At the

same time, we have seen an explosion of online games dedicated to pure

mayhem, first with 3-D 'corridor-based' shooters like Doom and Quake - and

now with 3-D shooters like Ultima.  In fact, Ultima is a good example;

Ultima Online charges $9.95 subscription fee for its Ultima Online:

Renaissance RPG game - the beta site was launche!

d in 1996 as a MUD and the full on 3-D rendered version was recently

launched. The site now has 134,000, translating to ffes in excess of $1.3

million per month (www.iw.com - April 2000).  Besides paying to play -

peripherals also sell well (Novels, Cheat Books etc) - and commercial

revenue is realised through software sales.


More stats; Jun 01 2000: New research from Forrester indicates that more

than 50 percent of US households will have Internet access by 2001 and more

than 1 in 3 will have purchased goods or services online. Forrester predicts

that growth in the future will be driven by increasing numbers accessing the

Internet from outside the home and then a growth in those using interactive

televisions or games consoles to go online. Of total online population, 30%

were gamers in 1999, in 2003 - that number will be 41% (Jupiter

Communications - Seminar - Research on game Consumers - E3, May 2000).

Adults 19-50 represent the largest percentage of gamers because of casual

games and casino games (Jupiter Communications - Seminar - Research on game

Consumers - E3, May 2000).  Currently adults play an average of 3 hours and

17 minutes of games each week (Yankee Group Survey - May 2000).  More can be

found on various sites; cmpgame.com is always worth a look.


Finally...console systems...and Internet access and millions of kids...yes,

for the rights organisations, the future looks very very good.  Just

consider: Video games (consoles) business will be $12 billion in US and

Europe by 2003 vs $5.2 billion for PCs (Datamonitor - May 2000) - showing a

shift toward consoles as potential primary access point to the Internet from

home.  Number of online gamers from consoles is set to surpass PC online

gamers by 2002, by 2004 there will be 45 million console online gamers vs 28

million PC online gamers for a total of 83 million online gamers

(Datamonitor -May 2000).  47% purchasing a new console are doing so to use

it to go online, 45% added they wanted access to email from consoles and 42%

want to play networked games over the Internet (Yankee Group Survey - May

2000).


So you see, it looks good.  Commerce you ask?  62% of video game owning

households also have a home computer - allowing cross selling of software

and hardware to end-users via ecommerce (Yankee Group Survey - May 2000). On

average - video game owning households (including PCs and consoles) spend

more than $200 per year on video games (Yankee Group Survey - May 2000).

BUT, like all good things - if you aint original and have USPs - pack it in

and watch the big boys play.  Need any more - contact me directly.




--

Regards,


Manou Marzban

Schoolmaster.net

Director - International Sales

50 Carnwath Rd. London SW6 3EG

Tel: 44 (0)207 384 6956

Fax: 44 (0)207 384 6901

email;

manouschoolmaster [dot] net

email;

manoubibliotech [dot] net

The .dot net company - BiblioTech



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