Lecture for the KGC 2011 in Daegu Past, present and future ofonline games in Europe Thomas BIDAUX - ICO Partners

1. Past, present and future of
online games in Europe
Thomas Bidaux - ICO Partners

2. Disclaimer
All numbers are estimates.
MAU numbers are Monthly Active Users
(connected once in the past 30 days) and have
been estimated by ICO Partners.
Lecture doesn’t delve into Social games
specifically.

3. Me

4. GOA

5. NCsoft

6. ICO Partners
Online Games Consulting & Services

7. Definitions
Europe
Online games

8. PART ONE - HISTORY

9. History
My first online game ever...
Rogue
36 15 Casus

10. History

11. History

12. History
Europe early contribution - MUD

13. History
First commercial successes
– Games from the US
• Ultima Online (May 1999)
• Everquest (November 2002 for Ubi)
 No critical mass on their own in Europe

14. History
• First european successes
– US licensed games
• GOA.com (T4C in 2000; Dark Age of Camelot in 2002)
– European developed 3d games
• EVE (2003)
• Anarchy Online (2001)
– European browser games
• Runescape (2001)
• Ogame (2002)
• Seafight (2006)
• Dofus (2004)
• Travian (2004)

15. History
• Getting large scale
– Asian MMO licenses
• Metin 2 (2006/2007)
• Flyff (2006/2007)
• Rappelz (2008)
– Browser games expansion
• Gameforge
• Bigpoint
• Ankama
• Jagex
– American Pay-to-play
• NCsoft Europe (Guild Wars 2005)
• Blizzard (WOW 2005)

16. History
Online games in Europe were built on:
• Free-to-play browser games from Europe
• Pay-to-play from the USA
• Free-to-play client games from Asia

17. History
Asia
F2P-Client
MMOs
Online
Games
In
Europe
USA Europe
P2P-Client F2P Browser
MMOs MMOs/Strat

18. PART TWO – STATE OF THE MARKET

19. State of the Market
• Still very fragmented
• Still growing
• F2P very dominant
• A lot of competition on the
main territories : Germany,
France, Spain, Poland

20. Germany
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 League of Riot 500k
Legends Games
2 WoW Blizzard 450k
3 Runes of Frogster 130k
Magic
Population - 82M
Title Publisher Est MAU
Home PC equipment
84% of the households 1 Farmerama Bigpoint 1.2M
2 Comunio Comunio 450k
Broadband Connections 3 Habbo Sulake 400k
65% of the households

21. France
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 Dofus Ankama 1.8 M
2 World of Blizzard 200k
Warcraft
3 League of Riot 160k
Legends Games
Population - 63M
Home PC equipment Title Publisher Est MAU
69% of the households 1 Habbo Sulake 900k
2 Equideow Owlient/ 350k
Broadband connections Ubisoft
58% of the households
3 Travian Travianga 340k
mes

22. United Kingdom
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 World of Blizzard 140k
Warcraft
2 League of Riot Games 120k
Legends
3 World of Wargaming 90k
Population - 62M tanks
Home PC equipment
Title Publisher Est MAU
81% of the households
1 Moshi Mind 1.5 M
Broadband connections Monsters Candy
70% of the households 2 Club Penguin Disney 900k
3 Bin Weevils Bin 800k
Weevils

23. Italy
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 League of Riot 40k
Legends Games
2 World of Blizzard 35k
Warcraft
3 Combat Arms Nexon 20k
Population - 60M
Home PC equipment
Title Publisher Est MAU
61% of the households
1 Travian Traviangames 250k
Broadband connections 2 Farmeram Bigpoint 170k
39% of the households a
3 Hattrick Hattrick 150k

24. Spain
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 Dofus Ankama 600k
2 League of Riot 150k
Legends Games
3 World of Blizzard 80k
Warcraft
Population - 46M
Home PC equipment Title Publisher Est MAU
66% of the households 1 Comunio Comunio 600k
2 Habbo Sulake 400k
Broadband connections
51% of the households 3 Club Disney 300k
Penguin

25. Poland
Title Publisher Est MAU
1 League of Riot Games 270k
Legends
2 Metin2 Gameforge 100k
3 World of Wargaming 70k
Tanks
Population - 38M
Home PC equipment
Title Publisher Est MAU
66% of the households
1 Farmerama Bigpoint 750k
Broadband connections 2 Stardoll Stardoll 400k
51% of the households 3 Moviestar 350k
Planet

26. Important companies
Online games companies Europe revenues - million €
310
140
110
57 56 52
40
22 22 20 18 17 15 13 7
source : ICO Partners

27. PART THREE – TRENDS

28. Trends
Trend #1
– Blurring territories specifics

29. Trends
Trend #2
– Browser games production value increase

30. Trends
Trend #3
– F2P production value global increase; IPs

31. Trends
Trend #4
– MMO loss of traction, even with high production
value

32. Trends
Trend #5
– New genres

33. Trends
Trend #6
– Social media integration

34. Trends
Trend #7
– Mobile as a platform

35. Trends
Trend #8
– F2P prevalence on mobile

36. Trends
Trend #9
– Platforms convergence

37. Trends
Conclusion
– Harder market than 2 years ago
– Fatigue of MMOs and emergence of new genres
favour original titles
– Focus on quality and niches
– Long term objectives ot be considered carefully
when looking at either licensing or self-publishing

38. Q&A

39. Thank you!
thomas@icopartners.com
www.slideshare.net/ICOPartners
www.icopartners.com/blog
@icotom
www.facebook.com/icopartners

40. ICO Partners products
European office locations
• 34 pages, pdf format
• General data on European countries
(tax rates, average salaries, cost of
employment)
• Detailed review of key locations
(France, UK, Netherlands, Germany,
Ireland, Luxembourg)
Download the sample

41. ICO Partners services
Pan-European dedicated PR
• Online games focus
• Pan-European coverage
• Specialized media
communication
• Promotional activities (beta key
distribution, events)
Find out more about ICO Media

42. ICO Partners services
Bespoke consulting
• European strategy planning
• Operations set-up process
• Team set-up recommendations
• Products evaluations
• Market intellirgence
Find out more about ICO Partners