A series of new reports from DFC Intelligence forecasts that the global market for video games is expected to grow from $67 billion in 2012 to $82 billion in 2017. This forecast includes revenue from dedicated console hardware and software (both physical and online), dedicated portable hardware and software, PC games and games for mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, music players and other devices that can play games as a secondary feature.
This is good news for all companies involved in gaming including Sony, Microsoft, Activision, Electronic Arts, Disney, and even Nintendo with its Wii U.
The Worldwide Market Forecasts for the Video Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry report notes that the industry has been flat to declining mainly because of declining sales in the console segment.
“New console systems from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are expected to help the console segment regain some momentum in the 2014 to 2015 timeframe,” said DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole. “However, the steadiest area of growth is on the PC and mobile side.”
PC game revenue continues to increase at a solid pace and is expected to pass $25 billion in 2017, up from about $20 billion forecasted for 2012. Meanwhile games for mobile and smartphones are driving much of the growth in the portable category.
“The U.S. is actually relatively weak for PC and mobile devices, but in many global markets PC and mobile devices are the only platform,” said Cole.
Across the board the biggest driver of growth is online distribution and online usage business models. These continue to take share away from the traditional model of selling physical boxed software at retail. The report Online Game Market Forecasts estimates worldwide revenue from online games to reach $35 billion by 2017, up from $19 billion in 2011. DFC believes that the next generation of console systems will allow for substantially more online distribution.
“By 2017 we forecast 39% of console game revenue will be via online distribution and online revenue sources,” said Cole.
The Worldwide Market Forecasts has a detailed summary of aggregate overall worldwide forecasts by platform (console, PC portable), distribution (retail or online) and region including a detailed breakout for individual console systems. Online Game Market Forecasts goes into a more detailed breakdown of online game revenue by business model, platform, region and genre. The reports are delivered with actual Excel spreadsheets containing the forecasts so that users can manipulate the data to their needs. Subscribers to DFC’s research packet service can get access to additional reports, historical data, regular updates, more detailed breakouts by country and genre and the ability to search the DFC database and download data to Excel spreadsheets. Anyone interested in regular information from DFC Intelligence is able to sign-up for the free DFC Dossier report.