KEY POINTS:
One of the cool things about Wii, Xbox Live Arcade and PS3 Store is the ability to buy games immediately online and download them.
This points the way to a future - as music buying moves digital via credit card payment and systems like PayPal gamers who prefer to get their content direct to their consoles can avoid heading to the shopping mall.
We know how grim it is for many CD stores - and sadly gaming stores may one day be joining them in finding their customers only buying their games online.
Gaming itself is fast moving online -again the new consoles are all about multiplayer over the net. PC gamers have been doing it for years. Second Life and WoW are growing phenomenally.
A new report confirms how fast things are moving and how this business model makes sense.
US analyst firm DFC Intelligence says the online game market earned $US3.4 billion ($NZ4.4 billion) in 2005 and at the current rate will grow to more than $13 billion in 2007.
It notes that online digital distribution is growing and more people have broadband so downloads are feasible. Asia is presently king of online gaming, especially South Korea and China which accounted for half the online gaming revenue last year.
The sale of virtual items will account for 40 percent of the market by 2012, but all predictions aren't as rosy.
DFC analyst David Cole says: "The big problem is that the market is becoming more fragmented among different companies, types of products and markets.
"The top online games have tended to do very well in one market like Korea, China, or the US, but have generally struggled in trying to expand to other markets. Furthermore, traditional video game publishers have not done well in the online game business and this has allowed for the rise of several online-only game companies that are making the marketplace more competitive for established players.
"Nevertheless, major markets like South Korea, China, Japan and the U.S. are all now able to support individual games that do over US$100 million a year in just one country.
"The first big international success in online games, World of Warcraft, from Vivendi Universal's Blizzard Entertainment, will do over US$100 million in each of several different markets in its first year alone."
Among the interesting statistics: 36.5% of online Americans own a games console and around 16% have a portable one like a PSP or DS.
Among the interesting observations: Games played on mobiles like Pac-man and Tetris are growing fast in popularity.
Among the interesting predictions: Sony, presently leading with the PS2 will have a leading 44% share of the console market in 2011.
Online RPGs account for over half the total online revenues, but FPS, racing and sports will increase fast. And it predicts advertisers will be lining up to get more product placement in games especially as they can be placed as part of game downloads.
My favourite online console download so far: an "aesthetic puzzler" (whatever that means!) called flOw, billed as a "game about piloting an aquatic organism through a surreal biosphere where players consume other organisms, evolve, and dive into the abyss." I
t's fun, addictive and mysterious but hard to explain. You use the PS3 wireless controllers as your creature and move about according to your centre of gravity.
You're confronted with visuals that look like (amoeba) life cells against a sky blue background. You swim about looking for things to eat and as you come across other unusual looking basic life forms you grow your form by eating them.
