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20070702 - Market Research
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+As a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) of a new genre, Atom is swimming in uncharted waters.
+Here are some notes on the MMOG market (mid 2006) from the
MMOG Chart.
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+- 12 million active MMOG subscriptions and growing fast.
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- Roll Playing Games (RPG) are a majority of market, 93.5%.
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- FPS has 0.3% of market at 37,000 players.
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- Other has 2.2% of market at 275,000 players.
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- My guess is that the fantasy RPG side of online games is saturated, yet the growth for other types of games is possible.
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- Key note from "GENERAL ANALYSIS" section in website, MMOG populations tend to follow hyperbolic or parabolic curves,
+with the most dramatic effect immediately after launch, so a good launch is very important!
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+Looking at a recient non-RPG game, Auto Assault, which targeted the niche market of automotive combat.
+Moral of this story, don't develop for a niche market using the high cost standard movie like game development model.
+Having 10,000 yearly subscribers at 1/12 the price would be fine for a single independent developer.
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+- Released Apr/2006, had 11,000 subscribers.
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- They charge about $15/month (or $180/year).
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- Which would be about $1.9 million a year in income.
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- As of July/2007, they are shutting down.
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ESA Data
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+The
ESA has some great stats on the game market.
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- 69% of American heads of households play games.
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- 7.6 hours/week played on average for males.
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- 44% of most frequent game players play online.
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MMORPG Data
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+With the majority of online players playing the genre, MMORPG should represent the worst case in server load in terms of hours per week per player online.
+From
The Daedalus Project.
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+- Average online player plays 21.9 hours/week.
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- Which would be over 90 hours a month.
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- So over 1/8 of the time they are playing the game.
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