A report by Parks Associates titled “Connected Consoles: Gaming, Media, and Beyond” predicts the combined online revenue from Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii will reach $8 billion dollars by the year 2013.
This figure includes all online transactions such as games, microtransactions within games, digital video distribution of movies and other media, and in-game advertising.
A big catalyst for this surge in revenue is Xbox Live Marketplace and the recent deal Microsoft struck with Netflix to digitally distribute rentals via Xbox Live.
The report also throws out some interesting statistics like 83% of Playstation 3 owners play games on a weekly basis while only 38% watch a Blu-ray movie. A more frightening statistic is 43% of PS3 owners have either never watched or rarely watch a Blu-ray movie. This disparity, and Xbox 360s online success, is what prompted Sony to launch its own digital movie download service last month at E3 that competes with its own Blu-ray format.
The report also predicts Sony’s online service will surpass Xbox 360s in revenue by 2011.
Moving forward, Nintendo will continue to seek ways to utilize the online space with Wii. It’s been slow going so far, but strides are being made to offer video through the Wii Channels.
