Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 11.1
The Size of the Global Video Game Market
4
In 2009 the global video game market was estimated at US$52 billion. In
the period 2004 to 2015, the global video game market is expected to grow
from less than US$30 billion to over US$80 billion (PricewaterhouseCoopers
2009, 2011). Regarding the future development of the video game market, it
is expected it will continue to grow. However, there are some dif erences in
the dynamics of individual segments. In particular, whereas the online and
wireless product segments will grow and, as a result, increase their overall
importance, the sales value of PC-based video games will decline. By 2013,
it is expected that it will have dropped to around US$4 billion, or 6 per cent
of the overall video game market value. The online and wireless video game
segments will reach around 18 per cent of the total video game market; in
other words, this segment will account for nearly 40 per cent of the total.
This is likely to be further boosted, from a technological viewpoint, by the
new mobile devices (tablets) and cloud computing. Cloud computing may dete-
riorate the PC segment especially when consumers renew their equipment, but
will act as an additional enabler for online distribution, adding more casual
gamers to the market, as gamers can play without having to download the
games on a sophisticated piece of equipment. In June 2010, OnLive introduced
an on-demand game based on cloud computing; in December 2010 Gaikai fol-
lowed that track. Major companies like Take Two, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft
are supporting the move and of ering popular games.
One should also stress that each of the regions displays specifi c features in
terms of the dominant platform: PC video games are signifi cant in Europe,
North America is the number one market for console and handheld video
games and Asia leads for online and mobile games. The Asia-Pacifi c region
became the largest market as of 2010 (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2011) and
is expected to be the fastest growing during the next fi ve years. Three of the
top four countries are located in that region. China overtook South Korea
that same year and ranks third behind the U.S. (over US$15 billion according
to PricewaterhouseCoopers [2011] but a total of US$25 including hardware
and accessories according to U.S. industry sources; see ESA 2011) and Japan.
PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that China will overtake Japan in 2011.
EMEA is still rating second with a market of US$16.9 billion in 2010. The
market remains (US$1.3 billion in 2010) and will remain modest (1.8 billion
in 2015) in Latin America for the size of its economy, especially with fast-
growing economies like Brazil.
growth opportunities, industry structures, value chains and business mod-
els might be expected to already have become fairly settled, and industry
policy would then have less of a role to play. An initial analysis showed
that appeared not to be the case. Technology is still developing rapidly and
there seem to be several untapped emerging segments, benefi ting from the
convergence of video games and (other) ICTs—notably online games and
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