Industry Overview

[Admin]

As I mentioned in the NCsoft overview thread, I don't have a lot of knowledge relating to the gaming industry as a whole. If you guys and girls could jump in and fill some of the gaps in my knowledge, that would be great. Thanks in advance!

[LINEAGE4LIFE]

Within the entire gaming industry, it is generally broken down into five different categories of games: arcade, mobile, online, PC, and video Games. Historically, video and arcade games dominated the market in the early 2000s, but more recently that trend has been bucked, as you can see below.



In terms of gross revenue, arcade and video games still dominate the overall share of all gaming revenues, but the areas that are seeing continued substantial growth are mobile and online games. With NCsoft already strongly positioned in online games, they might want to consider diversifying into other high-growth areas.

[RPG4LIFE]

Another thing that has definitely continued to shape the industry is the move towards a more casual gaming environment within the online game sphere. I don't have global numbers for me, but I can definitely speak to the Korean market. In 2003, MMORPG games had 51.6 per cent of the market share in the Korean online gaming market, with 17.9 per cent and 30.6 per cent in casual and web-board games, respectively. Compare this to 2006, when MMORPG accounted for 44.8 per cent and casual accounted for 35.3 per cent, and you can figure out that this is something that NCsoft must take into consideration.

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