Research conducted by IHS Screen Digest suggests subscription revenue generated by online PC games in the US and Europe dropped for “the first time” in 2010. Subscription revenue amounted to $1.58 billion last year, down five per cent from 2009, and is expected to fall annually to $1.33 billion in 2015. “The 2010 decline in subscription revenue - the first annual contraction experienced by the market since our coverage of this segment started in 2002 - represents an inflection point for the industry,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, senior analyst and head of games at IHS. “The focus of many PC game operators has clearly shifted to microtransaction-based models.” US and European microtransaction revenue leapt 24.2 per cent in 2010 and is expected to hit $1.8 billion in 2015. “This more than compensated for the decline in the subscription area and caused total Western MMOG/MOG market revenue - both subscriptions and microtransactions - to rise to $2.7 billion in 2010,” up 5.3 per cent from 2009, said Harding-Rolls The figure represents a 9.6 per cent share of the $31 billion spent in the West on all games content last year, according to IHS.

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