Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 3, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
“World of Warcraft” instead of Halma and “Mensch ärgere Dich nicht” – the games world is becoming digital at a rapid pace. According to a study by advertising time marketer SevenOne Media of the ProSiebenSat.1 group, this development will also continue. The study sees “golden times” dawning for game consoles. By contrast, the Toy Association expects consumers to turn more frequently to classic games again in the future, said the chairman of the Games specialist group, Ernst Pohle.
The triumphal march of digital games began with “Pong” in the 1970s, a computer game consisting of two short lines and a dot. What today draws the young – and increasingly also the old – to the screen is more complex; according to the study, developing a new game currently costs up to 15 million euros. But the offering is well received: Within five years, revenue from digital games in Germany rose by around 58 percent, to 1.7 billion euros in 2006, it was said. Worldwide, Germany is now said to be the fifth-largest market after the USA, Japan, Korea and Great Britain. Experts estimate that more than 2.5 billion euros will be generated nationwide with digital games by 2010. Traditional games remain far behind this development: In five years, revenue from board games, puzzles and collectible cards climbed by 2.3 percent to 400 million euros last year, according to the Toy Association. Nevertheless, Pohle was optimistic: «In the long term, people will spend more and more time in front of the computer. Then they do not also want to sit in front of the screen in their free time.» In addition, communication is better with classic games because the participnats sit together.
The digital industry also relies on playing together. Mass games in which people play against each other over the Internet are in vogue. Last year, according to the study, these offerings recorded more than twelve million subscribers worldwide, eight million for the bestseller «World of Warcraft» alone. Experts see this field as one of the growth markets. Another source of hope is the game console. In 2006, 30 percent of German households already had such a device. The industry hopes to increase this share to 40 percent in the coming years. «Mobile gaming», for example with a mobile phone, also has growth potential. According to SevenOne Media, around 20 million people nationwide already play digitally. Most are «male, single, young». The share of women, at 32 percent, could still be increased, it was said – in the USA, 42 percent were female. There was also said to be room for improvement in the age structure: 40 percent of players were between 14 and 29 years old, 37 percent 30 to 49 years old, and only 23 percent of respondents who pass the time with digital technology were over 50 years old. There was therefore still potential, especially among older people, it was said.
