(Press-News.org) The video games industry is leading the overall trend of transformation of digital products into e-services, according to the report "Born digital/ Grown digital – Assessing the future competitiveness of the EU video games software industry" published today by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Online games, for example, play a major role in the digital content convergence process based on digital distribution of different types of content and the diffusion of interactive capabilities for consumers. This phenomenon is having an effect on the movie, video, music and mobile communication industries, and the whole publishing sector in general.
As one of the most innovative industries, the video games world constantly develops and experiments with new digital services online, offline and mobile by providing user-friendly, intuitive services that include the latest information and communication technologies such as context aware devices, sensors, cognitive technologies or movement recognition cameras. Furthermore, the fact that the industry is growing faster than any other in media and entertainment could intensify its effect as a breeding ground for other e-services such as eGovernment, eHealth, eCulture and eEducation.
The global video games market, estimated to be €45 to €50 billion in 2009, is expected to grow four times faster than the media and entertainment market as a whole. The former is expected to grow by almost 70% by 2013, whereas the latter by only 17%. In the UK, the video game market outgrew the cinema market in 2009.
Where does Europe stand? – Strengths and weaknesses of EU firms
The study published by the JRC's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) focuses, among others, on two segments: online and mobile video games, analysing their software industry, growth potential, value chain, business models and current evolution. It outlines major emerging technologies, investigates their disruptive potential on the market and analyses their contribution to the competitiveness of the European ICT industry.
At the moment, European businesses play a role in all stages of the games software value chain but to different extents. The study shows that the competitiveness of EU video games software industry has an important role on the global front:
The European industry supplies a large share of the world's games engines, which play a central role in the new era of modularised engines.
Europe hosts a large population of developer studios, often the creators of major market successes. These highly creative small development studios can be found mainly in the UK, France, Germany, the Nordic countries and, to a lesser extent, Spain.
However, the positive conditions may not be sufficient to overcome the weaknesses in the publishing and device segments.
Europe is the largest market for video games. In 2009, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK accounted for nearly 30% of the global video games market, and there is room for growth as other national markets are still unevenly developed. The EU market is likely to grow strongly over the next few years and will be increasingly focused on the online market with broadband penetration increasing and more consoles offer online game play options. This growing role of the online segment will open up opportunities for dynamic European companies.
Changing landscape of the online and mobile games market
Mobile games are challenging the monopolies of existing operating system owners (consoles, PCs) and offer a new distribution channel to developers. Online games are offering users a new role, which could bypass the publishers and create different revenue streams. These emerging trends will affect the future dynamics of video games software industry competitiveness. It is expected that the growth of the video games software market will be primarily driven by online and wireless game software, while revenues from hardware sales will proportionally decline, hence changing the landscape.
Online and mobile gaming point to the expansion of the video games industry in terms of supply, with the entry of new players (like portals of Internet Service Providers); demand, with the addition of new segments of customers, no longer the preserve of young males; and new business models based on advertising, micro-transactions or selling virtual items.
INFORMATION:
Background information
This study is part of the COMPLETE (Competitiveness by Leveraging Emerging Technologies Economically) project (2007-2010), financed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre's Institute for Prospective and Technological Studies (IPTS) and Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry. It analyses the prospects of success for European ICT industries in the face of technological and market innovations in the following emerging technologies: online and mobile video games software, Web 2.0, displays (OLEDs and e-paper), RFID, emerging robotics and embedded software in the automotive sector.
Download
"Born digital/Grown digital – Assessing the future competitiveness of the EU videogames software industry": http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=3759
More information
COMPLETE project (videogames): http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/ISG/COMPLETE/games/index.html
Contact
Elena González Verdesoto, JRC Press officer: elena.gonzalez-verdesoto@ec.europa.eu
David Merino, JRC-IPTS communication officer: david.merino@ec.europa.eu
END
Scientists and engineers at the internationally acclaimed Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester are developing a conceptual motor design for a Mars 'hopping' vehicle which should lead to a greater understanding of the 'Red Planet'.
Their research findings have been published this month by the Proceedings of the Royal Society A (http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/11/rspa.2010.0438.short?rss=1 )
Robots exploring Mars can carry scientific instruments that measure the physical and chemical characteristics of the Martian surface ...
Researchers funded by the BBSRC Crop Science Initiative have made a discovery that could instigate a paradigm shift in breeding resistance to late blight – a devastating disease of potatoes and tomatoes costing the industry £5-6 billion a year worldwide. They will share this research with industry at an event in London later today (18 November).
Professor Paul Birch of the University of Dundee and his team at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), the University of Dundee, and the University of Aberdeen have developed a new approach to breeding resistance to the ...
Researchers have uncovered the genetic basis of remarkable broad-spectrum resistance to a viral infection that, in some parts of the world, is the most important pathogen affecting leafy and arable brassica crops including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, swede and oilseed rape. They have tested resistant plants against a range of different strains of the virus taken from all over the world and so far, no strain has been able to overcome the resistance.
The research on the so-called Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), led by Dr John Walsh of the University of Warwick and ...
The transplant community was largely unaware of sub-standard transportation practices for donor organs until a number of fatal air crashes took the lives of transplant personnel, calling attention to procurement aviation safety. A new report highlighting the need for improved safety measures in organ procurement travel appears in the December issue of Liver Transplantation, a peer-reviewed journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
In the U.S., the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) ...
OAKLAND, Calif. – Compared to women never on hormone therapy, those taking hormone therapy only at midlife had a 26 percent decreased risk of dementia; while women taking HT only in late life had a 48 percent increased risk of dementia, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers.
Women taking HT at both midlife (mean age 48.7 years) and late life had a similar risk of dementia as women not on HT, according to the study which appears in the Annals of Neurology. The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.
Although previous research has shown that ...
A protein known to exist in the brain for more than 30 years, called 5-lipoxygenase, has been found to play a regulatory role in the formation of the amyloid beta in the brain, the major component of plaques implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at Temple University's School of Medicine.
The researchers also found that inhibitors of this protein currently used to control asthma could possibly be used to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers published their findings, "5-Lipoxygenase as Endogenous Modulator of Amyloid ...
Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited eye disorder characterized by progressive loss of vision that in many instances leads to legal blindness at the end stage.
In a ChIP-Seq based approach, the researchers identified a key regulatory role of the transcription factor Crx (Cone-rod homeobox) in the expression of retina-specific genes and thus described an important genetic basis for visual perception. In-depth analysis of Crx mediated regulation in photoreceptors with latest technology provided by Genomatix lead then to the identification of nonsense mutations in the human ...
New stars are born in the Universe around the clock – on the Milky Way, currently about ten per year. From the birth rate in the past, we can generally calculate how populated space should actually be. But the problem is that the results of such calculations do not match our actual observations. "There should actually be a lot more stars that we can see," says Dr. Jan Pflamm-Altenburg, astrophysicist at the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie of the University of Bonn.
So, where are those stars?
For years, astronomers worldwide have been looking for a plausible explanation ...
The casting sessions aren't just for movie stars, but what is involved in casting decisions that can launch fashion models to fame – or at the very least – to land a job? Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor and socio-cultural anthropologist, spent 11 months of fieldwork at a premiere casting agency in New York to uncover the decisions that happen behind the scenes of the glossy photos and slick commercials. Her research, "Polaroids and Go-Sees: Casting Encounters, Casting Epistemologies," was presented Nov. 17 at the 109th annual meeting ...
HOUSTON – (Nov. 18, 2010) – Discovery of a fifth gene defect and the identification of 47 DNA regions linked to thoracic aortic disease are the subject of studies released this month involving researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
In both studies, the investigators have identified alterations in the genetic material or DNA that affect the ability of smooth muscle cells, which line the aorta and other blood vessels, to contract. This can lead to a weakening of the wall of the aorta, the main blood vessel leading out of the ...
