Gaming Industry

Electronic gaming is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing segments of the software industry. The global gaming industry is now worth more than the global film industry in revenues.

This growth will continue to grow due to the emergence of new gaming platforms. Gamers no longer depend on traditional games consoles and CD-ROM games. They can now play using mobile phones or via interactive TV. The spread of broadband, both fixed-line and wireless, and the increasing variety of gamers, will also attract many more consumers to gaming.

The online gaming market is now growing at about four times the rate of the console gaming market. According to market research companies, the combined market for Internet gaming and interactive TV gaming in the US and Europe exceeds 111 million players.

By 2006, games subscriptions and pay-per-play will drive almost 90 percent of online gaming revenues, with the rest coming from advertising. The best-known online game, EverQuest, has half a million paying users in the US, while Lineage, which originated in South Korea, has four million subscribers around the world.

Consumers are not the only customers for electronic games. A phenomenon known as ‘advergaming’ is now enjoying widespread popularity. Advergaming involves businesses commissioning and purchasing internet or wireless games to use in marketing and advertising campaigns.

However, the hottest new developments are mainly in wireless gaming. Today, market research companies estimate that there are now over 130 million wireless gamers in Europe alone.

Source: Kathy Foley, Journalist for the Irish Voice

Check that you understand what these words mean in this document Segment: a part of.
Emergence: the appearance.
Subscription: a regular payment usually to become a member.
Pay-per-play: a method of charging people who want to play a game (i.e. players pay a fixed amount of money to be able (to play) for a fixed time period).
To commission: to pay somebody to do something.