While some gaming companies are facing major cutbacks in the face of a worldwide financial crisis, there’s at least one segment of the industry that’s experiencing a heck of a boon. Free online gaming Web sites have reported a surge in traffic.According to market research company comScore, the American audience for free gaming sites has grown in leaps and bounds. The figures for December 2008 show some 86 million American visitors to free sites. The numbers from the previous December were only 67 million. Time spent playing these games has also grown. Some of the top sites for free games trafficked by American players include Yahoo! Games, EA Online, Disney, MSN and AOL.
While free online games and the console game industry both saw increases in 2008, PC game sales fell an estimated 14 percent. This makes sense on a few levels. Console games, for the most part, enable multiple players. This means buyers can justify them as “family entertainment” purchases. Free online games are just that – they’re free. There’s no need to justify the expense and the entertainment value is there.
OK, so games on MSN might not rival Vanguard, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and scores of others in graphics department. That’s a given. They are enjoyable nonetheless. The sad fact is PC games, even if they claim to be multiplayer, are awkward to play as such. And, with many costing $50 a pop plus online access fees, they can prove to be very costly in a time when most families are trying to trim the fat from their monthly bills.
As the budget crunch pinches even more, my guess is sites like AOL, EA and Yahoo will continue to experience growth. After all, they do offer an interesting and affordable option to more costly titles.
Check out a few of the online gaming sites below:
Yahoo! Games
MSN Games
AOL Games
Pogo.com fom EA
Disney Game Kingdom Online
Labels: free online games, MSN, online gaming, Yahoo Games
