Online Gaming Revenues to Hit US$20 Billions - ABI Research

Revenues of web gaming in 2012 are forecast to achieve over US$20 billion, driven by North American, European and Asia Pacific markets, based on market-research firm ABI Research.

The Asia-Pacific region, in particular China, could be the engine behind significantly of this development. However, in China,as a result of commonly lower levels of very own PC ownership, the firm models are enhancing a tiny differently. In accordance with market analyst Michael Inouye, "World of Warcraft, for instance, generates essential earnings for Activision in Europe and North America over a subscription basis. But in China, despite a big `subscriber` base, the revenues are far smaller: it`s a lot more of a pay-as-you-go design (prepaid game cards). This also makes a higher reliance on `cloud` or server-based games."

One more difference in Asia is regulation. "In China, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere the rules are much more exacting in what they allow. Some games for instance, have had to adjust their content. utilizing WoW once more as an example, the developers had to get rid of the virtual blood."

The increasingly varied and variety of connected devices would also enable gaming on additional platforms, ABI Research said.