Since the writing of the Electronic Arts Case the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii have been released and both have online gaming capabilities. What’s your assessment of the current online gaming market?
In general, in the gaming industry, there has been a switch in terms of market share among console makers. The leader of the console makers now is Nintendo Wii, who is selling, over 3 times as many units as the PS3, and even more than that against the Xbox 360. In 2008, there was an increase on U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories, and total video game sales in America topped $21 billion, and, after many years of operating loss, as of 2008, the console and digital media products of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) have finally become profitable.
Focusing only in the online gaming market, according to some critics, Microsoft's X Box live system has done the best job so far of connecting a home console to the Internet and bringing the entire experience together with ease and relative stability.
Although Nintendo and Sony have made available downloadable games and multi-players, they are not doing it quite well. According to a CNET article, The Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console lets gamers enjoy some of the best games from the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and other classic systems, and the PlayStation Network offers both new games and classic PlayStation titles for download. Unfortunately, the Wii's multiplayer component feels incomplete and awkward, and the PS3's library isn't as large and its interface isn't nearly as friendly as it could have been.
In addition, Microsoft has also announced that as of January 2009 there were 17 million paying subscribers signed up to their Xbox Live service. It is a success for Microsoft, who bet on a subscription-based model for the online gaming market. Many analysts thought people wouldn’t be willing to pay for that kind of service.