According to NPD, 2012 digital game sales were:

• U.S. -$5.9 billion (40 percent of total U.S. dollars spent on games, up from 28 percent in 2010)
• U.K. – $1.7 billion
• Germany – $1.4 billion
• France – $1 billion.

For 2012, the U.S. breaks down as:

• New retail games – $7.1 billion
• Used games – $1.59 billion
• Digital games and DLC -$2.22 billion
• Game subscriptions – $1.05 billion
• Social network games – $544 million
• Game rentals -$198 million
• Mobile games -$2.11 billion
• Digital full games and DLC combined grew 33.9 percent for the year
• Subscriptions grew 12.9 percent
• Mobile games grew 10.4 percent

• The UK has the highest percentage of console players
• France prefers portable consoles
• Germany prefers computers
• US is most partial to gaming on mobile and tablet platforms
• In the US, 27 percent of mobile gamers pay
• In Europe, 40 percent of mobile gamers pay
• U.K. average spending on mobile games is $16
• U.S. average spending on mobile games is $9
• In China, Mobile game spending is projected to reach$1 billion this year, and $2.8 billion in 2016.

According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China will have 800 Million Internet users by 2015.

Niko Partners released some new data on China’s game market stating that:

• Browser-based games will grow in China by 41 percent in 2012
• Client-based MMOGs will continue to generate the majority of revenue in China
• Webgames and social games will comprise an increasing market share
• Social games are the most used applications on social networking sites such as Qzone, Pengyou, and RenRen.com
• The webgames market is fragmented with low barriers to entry yet fewer infrastructure restrictions than the MMOG market

According to a recent NPD report:

• 3 million SmartTVs shipped in China in Q1 2012
• This represents 30% of all TVs shipped in the country in the quarter

Lenovo recently launched a SmartTV that features an embedded system by JiaJia TV, which is a lite gaming console on a chip within the SmartTV. This means Chinese gamers will have a legal alternative to physical game consoles, which are still banned in the country. The Chinese SmartTV console systems likely will become a viable market, potentially even for western games over the next several years. Given the state of play in China, content for now will be homegrown, Chinese content from Chinese publishers.

With streaming online games, there is an emerging market that I predict will start to see parallels in North America and Europe over the next 2-3 years. Expect to see Samsung, LG and Sony watching Lenovo’s moves very closely in China as they all look to embed console technology into their SmartTV offerings as well. By 2015, you should see some high quality games coming to SmartTVs in Europe and North America.

Jon Peddie Research released new research on the state of the PC Games market. Here are some of the key insights:

• There are 54 million Performance and Enthusiast class PC gamers worldwide
• The number of  Performance and Enthusiast class PC gamers worldwide will grow to 72 million by 2015
• There is very strong demand in the  Performance and Enthusiast class PC gamers worldwide for systems, accessories, and upgrades approaching $4.7 billion in 2012 and growing to $7.7 billion by 2015
• China’s internet cafe’s are driving demand for Mainstream and some Performance class gaming equipment

I just uploaded a presentation I’ve given in different flavors over the past few years on launching MMO games. Here it is:

Newzoo released their 2011 MMO Games Market Report. Here are some key data point (focused on SCiFi MMO games):

• 36% of 39 million active MMO gamers in the US play games that have a SciFi or Space theme: 14 million in total
• In European and Emerging markets, SciFi is less popular than in the US, with 27% and 26% of all MMO gamers respectively, but the number of players is still significant totaling 9.5 and 11.5 million
• 68% of American SciFi MMO gamers play Free-to-Play MMOs
• 16% of American SciFi MMO gamers play Pay-to-Play MMOs
• 16% play both Free-to-Play and Pay-to-Play MMO games
• Most Free-to-Play gamers play for free but the number of SCiFi MMO gamers spending money in Free-to-Play MMO games outnumbers the 4.5 Million Pay-to-Play gamers
• China and Korea combined score best with 38% of MMO gamers or 41 Million consumers playing SCiFi MMO games
• In China and Korea 53% choose Pay-to-Play games, but almost all of these players also play Free-to-Play MMO games
• In Brazil, Mexico and Russia 80% of all SciFi MMO gamers only play Free-to-Play MMOs
• The UK is the largest SciFi MMO market in Europe in terms of number of players: 2.7 Million. Despite “only” 1.7 Million SciFi gamers in Germany, total money spent is almost equal for both countries

Pearl Research released some new info from their Games Market in Korea study.

• Nexon derives more than 50% of its revenues from overseas
• Nexon’s Maple Story has more than 130,000 maximum concurrent users in the United States
• Japan, known for being a console market, is a top priority for Korean game operators
• NHN, Korea’s largest search engine provider and one of the top four game operators in Korea, has more than 36 million registered users in Japan
• China still remains elusive, with two major Korean game operators restructuring their business there
• Neowiz, saw international sales jump more than 30%, in part due to the success of its online titles in China
• Approximately 61% of Korean smartphone users play games on their phone
• In a market dominated by Samsung, LG and other local handset manufacturers, Apple has been able to carve market share with 2 million and counting units of the iPhone being sold in Korea

According to PacificEpoch, as of June 30, 2011:

• China now has 485 million internet users
• China’s mobile internet user base reached 318 million

The weekly Niko Partners newsletter has some info on the growing Chinese Social Network Game Market.

According to Gamelook.com.cn -

As of 2011:

• There are 235 million registered social network game players in China
• There are 150 million active social network game players in China
• 64.8 percent of registered social network game players in China are active players
• The number of registered players grew 33.7 percent over the past year