Games Go Online and on Sale: The Audience Grows, But at What
Price?
Deloitte predicts that in 2011 the global computer and video
game industry will continue growing but from a more diverse set of
revenue streams. The industry is forecast to generate $52 billion
in software revenues in 2011, 6 percent higher than in 2010, while
hardware is predicted to generate only $13 billion, a decline of 19
percent154.
An increasingly large percentage of games revenue is likely to
come from monthly subscriptions, peripherals, fees for services and
in-game purchases and advertising in the free-to-play (F2P) and
"Freemium" markets. Deloitte forecasts that the total
revenue from these relatively new sources could be as high as $10
billion, or 16 percent of total game revenues, by the end of 2012,
and over time could represent 50 percent of all revenues for the
industry.
