Broadband penetration could lead to growth for games industry

It has been claimed that increased broadband penetration in Australia could be one of several factors that are expected to lead to a growth in the games industry.

Online gaming has become hugely popular in many countries around the world over recent years, with more and more people engaging in a variety of high tech, exciting games with superb graphics and plenty of features. The increased take up of broadband and advancements with broadband speeds have helped to increase the popularity of gaming in Australia and other countries.

It has now been suggested that the games industry in Australia could enjoy enormous growth over the coming few years, fuelled by a number of factors. The prediction was made at the recent Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (iGEA) annual meeting, which was held in Sydney. It was reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Roy Morgan that made the predictions.

Games are said to be the fastest growing media sector on a global basis, expected to increase at 8.2 percent per year until 2015. One of the factors that is thought to be a driving factor behind huge growth in the gaming industry is broadband, which is set to reach 100 percent penetration in Australia by 2015 as a result of the National Broadband Network.

Mobile is also set to be a driving factor behind huge growth in the games industry, as this is set to reach penetration of 75 percent by 2015. Ron Curry, CEO of iGEA, said: “I think one of the most interesting things we are seeing is how games are now delivered anytime, anywhere and across a myriad of devices including PDA or mobile, tablet, consoles or PC. As a result there is a natural diverging of revenue streams with predictions that close to 50 per cent of revenue will be from “non-traditional” (boxed) product by 2015.”

Source – Gamespot