So when's the turnaround gonna start ?

[Wij]

http://www6.tomshardware.com/technews/index.html#0124

Online gaming worth billions by 2005 ? Not at this rate :/

 

[Testin da Cable]

The bad news is that because revenues from online advertising will virtually disappear, the online gaming industry will have to charge users to play. Datamonitor says that by 2005, subscriptions and pay per play will represent almost 90% of the market revenues.

baaaad mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkay

 

[WPKenny]

Bollox to that, with everyone getting broadband bit by bit, it'll be no probs getting a game for free if one of the group of friends hosts it. These message boards and IRC will become even more popular as people arrange their own private games. The only thing people will be willing to pay for is stuff like maybe clan servers, and pro tournament servers.

 

[Wij]

Companies will get around the 'host-your-own' bit eventually by emphasising the persistency aspects. At a minimum that means stats. But commonly it will mean a persistent world. This is not feasible for a home PC with a cable/adsl connection to control. Therefore to play the game properly you'll have to go to approved (pay) servers.

That's my 2p anyway

 

[WPKenny]

Oh that's true and always will be for stuff like UO and EQ. But for one off games like UT and Q3 user servers are fine. Planetarion did pretty well from it's humble beginnings in the guys' appartment...gone a bit squew whiff now though they've moved and got bigger.