UK games industry

New national surveys in Russia, China, Spain, Brazil and Mexico.

Amsterdam/San Francisco, 20 December  2010 – Data from the Total Consumer Spend 2010 Report published today by Games Industry market research specialist Newzoo shows how big changes in consumer spending are transforming the games industry. With British consumers spending £3.7bn GBP on games of all kind, the total gamers’ wallet only shows a small decline of 3% since last year. The US shows a similar drop of just 2%, resulting in a total spend of €24.7bn USD. There has been a drop of more than 25% in total spend on console games - which still accounts for almost half of all money spent on games – but this has been almost completely compensated for by growth across all online and mobile game platforms, ranging from 27% for MMOs to 66% for games played on social networks. Other key European markets show even larger growth in money spent on online business models, pushing the total spend up with 13% in France and 33% in Germany resulting in market sizes of €4.0bn Euro and €4.9bn Euro respectively.

Major shift in players, payers and average monthly spend per platform

In the current games market, revenue figure analysis is not enough. As all game platforms now offer “free-to-play” options, the key success factor is conversion. Analysis of trends in number of players, payers and average monthly spend per platform shows that the main factor contributing to growth is the share of people paying for games on free-to-play platforms.

Peter Warman, MD of Newzoo adds: “Our data shows consumers are not simply moving away from console games, but spreading their budget across more platforms. Their choice of game genre and platform depends on time, place, social setting and the need they are seeking to satisfy at that moment. There is no longer such thing as a typical casual or core gamer, as on average, consumers play games on more than 3.5 platforms and more than 85% of all gamers spends time on casual game platforms. Games are clearly becoming a more integrated part of people’s lives and social activities. The current variety of platforms and game genres combined with the low entry barrier of free-to-play business models will ensure further growth in western countries as well as in emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia.”

Newzoo and GlobalCollect launch National Surveys in Brazil, Mexico, Rusia, Spain, China

In early 2011 Newzoo will extend its portfolio of nation-wide surveys to include Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and China in addition to gathering fresh data on the US and key EU markets. World's premier Payment Service Provider of local online payment processing, GlobalCollect, is launch sponsor of the new series of surveys.

Bob Voermans, Senior Business Development Manager EMEA at GlobalCollect comments: “Online monetization of games is challenging and the growth we witness on a daily basis is unseen in any other industry. Our clients are now targeting new growth markets but comprehensive market data is lacking. We see it as our responsibility to make sure our clients make well-informed choices and have therefore chosen to back the new series of surveys performed by Newzoo, to consult them on their strategy.”

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Download links

1.       The Total Consumer Spend 2010 Report (PDF) can be downloaded directly from the Newzoo and GlobalCollect website.

2.       Additional relevant whitepapers can be found via the GlobalCollect Knowledge Center:

a.       Online spending and payments on MMOs and Game Portals (Newzoo).

b.      The changing face of payments within the Gaming industry - how to convert Players into Payers.

NOTES:

The Newzoo Total Consumer Spend 2010 Report

The Newzoo Total Consumer Spend 2010 Report is a freely available two-page document. The data is based on industry benchmarking and analyses of data from the 2009 & 2010 National Gamers Surveys involving more than 20,000 respondents in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.

Contacts

UK PR Agency: Lucy Kamall, PR Director, Character Communications, lucy@charactercomms.com

Newzoo Press: Wieteke van Hooijdonk, PR & Marketing Newzoo, wieteke@newzoo.com

Data and reports: Peter Warman, Managing Director Newzoo, peter@newzoo.com

T: +31 (0)20 6635816

www.newzoo.com