“…Although online worlds such as ‘Ultima Online’ and ‘ EverQuest’ account for only a small chunk of the game industry today, it’s a profitable chunk, accounting for $210 million in revenue last year. Game publishers and analysts expect the segment to grow significantly in the next few years–to as much as $1.8 billion in 2005 by some estimates. That’s because online games based on popular franchises such as ‘The Sims’ and ‘Star Wars’ will start cropping up to lure mainstream consumers into the arena. Game companies are looking to subscription fees from online players as a major source of recurring revenue in the near future, with leading games publisher Electronic Arts predicting that 400,000 subscribers will be paying about $15 a month for “The Sims Online” by the end of its current fiscal year.
“But if the new virtual worlds are full of the cheating and hacking that has marred previous online games, those subscribers may not stay around. A small but fractious minority in online gaming circles, cheaters can suck the fun out of a game by introducing homemade characters with unauthorized powers, making it impossible for opponents to win or even survive. They can also quickly pollute the social atmosphere critical to many games…”
Click here to read the full article from ZDNet News.
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