Consoles to Overtake PCs Online

Market analysts Datamonitor are projecting that console gamers playing online will overtake PC gamers by the year 2002, and by 2004 consoles will dominate the online games market. The projection calls for 45 million console owners in the United States and Europe to be enjoying online games by 2004 compared to just 28 million PC players. Datamonitor senior analyst Frederic Diot believes,"The console phenomenon is coming online and console user-friendliness will bring an increasing number of gamers to play online." The Datamonitor report, titled "Online games and gambling in Europe and the US, 1999-2004", further projects that the games software market will continue to grow quickly in the coming years, reaching $17 billion by 2003. According to the report, $12 billion of that sum will be spent in the console market.