We play MMOGs (massive multi-play online games) because they’re fun. They’re fun for 86,000 reasons. They keep making ‘em because we keep playing ‘em and we keep paying for ‘em. Is it all just a fad? Are we just going to stop playing World of Warcraft and Maple Story and go back to checkers?

Research analyst firm Strategy Analytics predicts we’ll continue to play MMOGs. The report estimates that by 2011 there will be 80 million subscribers to various MMORPG titles, revenues over $11.5 billion, equal to 11.7% of the total gaming industry’s revenue.) I know those are humongous number already, but MMOs to equal 11.7% of the total gaming industry? The gaming industry’s a behemoth! The estimate for total gaming revenue for 2011 is $48.88 billion. But…80 million MMORPG players worldwide! Anyone who’s anyone will have an avatar.

What’s driving the growth of online play? The fact that headsets are now seen as “cool”. Just kidding, it’s the increasing availability of broadband, of course. Of course!

Tags: avatars, game industry, mmo industry

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Social Space, gamers, gaming. 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.