DFC Intelligence and Live Gamer today released projections for Free-to-Play/MMOG Lite gaming. The survey, called “Consumer Trends in Virtual Goods and Downloadable Gaming in North America and Europe,” suggests the F2P gaming could be a $7 billion industry worldwide by 2015, double its total in 2009.
“Another interesting result of this study is that the idea that F2P games have a ‘microtransaction’ business model is actually quite misleading,” says DFC analyst David Cole. “Historically, the average purchase is over $10 and some games offer an optional subscription. Going forward, it is obvious that understanding consumer purchase patterns and preferences will be a necessity for continued success. Advanced analytics provided by platforms such as Live Gamer’s are a valuable resource for tracking these patterns.”
F2P titles are expected to grow in Europe and North America from $800 million in 2009 to over $3 billion by 2015. Interestingly, Korean F2P games with client-side downloads have over 10 percent of users paying in some way, while social network games on Facebook have less than one percent of players that pay.
“The free-to-play model is increasing in popularity at an astounding rate, both in the US and worldwide,” said Andrew Schneider, co-founder and president of Live Gamer. “We’re seeing average revenue per paying user top $28 per month across the 145 titles that Live Gamer powers around the world. With engaging games and a solid monetization strategy in place developers and publishers can see great success leveraging item-based business models.”
Source: dfcint.com
