The ability to dynamically serve advertising into video games that are connected to the Internet will create a growing opportunity. As gamers connect consoles to the Internet for online gaming and commerce, publishers and their respective console partners increasingly will look to reach them through advertising – resulting in a market that will grow from 80 million in 2007 to 852 million by 2011.
ABI Research believes in-game advertising is just one of the new revenue streams that will come to fruition from the conversion of console gaming into connected gaming. Online downloading of entertainment content such as movies and TV shows will grow, as Sony and Microsoft nurture their respective video offerings. All three major console vendors will experience strong growth in casual game download revenues. ABI Research forecasts the casual and classic game download market for gaming consoles to grow tenfold from 93 million in 2007 to 1.1 billion by 2011.
"At present, all three game console vendors are investing heavily in online gaming and commerce infrastructure," said the report. "While these investments are not profitable today, we expect mounting acceptance of the online channel as one of the primary mediums to get new content on the console, causing online gaming to become a significant contributor to revenues for all three vendors within 3 to 4 years."
