$1.4 Billion Spent on MMO Subscriptions in 2008!

One of the latest Screen Digest reports (via mcvuk) shows that last year, Europeans and North Americans have spent around $1.4 billion for MMO subscriptions in total. That is a 22% market growth difference from year 2007 and experts at Screen digest say that despite the increased growth of the Asian online games market model where players instead of paying monthly fees buy items for money, the sector still has five more years to grow. In the report done by Screen digest, here are the basic topics covered:

• Addressable market forecast: broadband households, online active consoles
• Subscription MMOG Market Overview and Updated Forecasts
• Regional Analysis and Forecasts
• North American Territory Analysis and Forecasts
• European Territory Analysis and Forecasts
• Title Market Share Analysis
• Company Market Share Analysis
• Content trends
• The Year Ahead

A comment from Screen digest’s senior analyst and head of games Piers Harding-Rolls: “Industry commentators have for some time been using the example of the Asian online games market to proclaim the death of subscription business models in the West, praising the accessibility and flexibility of free-to-access games that generate revenue by encouraging players to make micro-transactions as part of the gaming experience.”

For now it would seem that the MMO subscription route is the way to go as the more popular games such as World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online have millions of paying players which renew their subscriptions on a monthly basis. With these games and other like them having such a great success I can’t see them going away anytime soon. While the market could move towards more free based MMOs, I just can’t see it happening anytime soon.

And just recently a few MMOs have tried to enter the pro gaming scene with World of Warcraft leading the way. Even though there have been some bugs along the way they are trying hard to make it an even playing field for the players which is already starting to spark more interest in the competitive gaming scene. This will only lead to more people playing these games to try and get good so they can also compete, which is just bringing in more and more cash for the game.

While I am not a big fan of MMOs, I can recognize that they must be doing something right to be able to bring in that type of money from their players. Only time will tell if these business models of the subscriptions will continue to become more and more popular as they get older and newer games come out that are free to play.