While the Western RPG market is dominated by World of Warcraft, Asian MMORPGs are still booming. Worldwide, analysts expect the market to reach revenues of $8 billion in 2010, according to a Strategy Analytics report on BusinessWire.
The report predictably found that Blizzard dominates the U.S. and Europe, but these markets are growing slowly. “Faced with fierce competition from social games and console video games, MMORPG in the Western market has already shown signs of a slowdown,” said Strategy Analytics director Martin Olausson. “The traditional subscription model that most Western MMORPGs adopt has lost traction and growth momentum.”
This has led to a much healthier market in Asian regions, led by companies like Shanda, Netease, Nexon, and NCsoft. “Contrary to the flattening Western market, the Asian MMORPG market has grown immensely since 2007, due to the successful virtual items-based revenue model,” said analyst Jia Wu. “As more Asian online game companies target U.S. and European markets, they will become a formidable force in the global gaming industry.”
