Game Middleware Survey Indicates Strong Future Growth

The Acacia Research Group has released the results of its survey looking into the use of game middleware by software developers, and has concluded that the future for the middleware industry is strong. The group's research expects the game middleware industry to triple from its current total of $149 million to almost $430 million by 2010. Middleware for mobile phone games is the fastest grower in all categories; as developers struggle to deal with multiplicity of handset models and carriers on the market, the survey suggested that software such as Tira Jump that automates the porting process is attracting greater demand. Overall, Acacia Research Group's released estimations expect mobile middleware to skyrocket from $2.9 million to $89.2 million in 2010, but also expects console game middleware, from physics and networking to entire graphic engines, to grow very significantly, from $105 million to $272 million in the same period. "The market for game middleware is well defined," said Christine Arrington, Senior Analyst at Acacia Research Group, "but mobile and interactive TV still offer little more than an abstraction layer for application developers. We believe that will change significantly over the next five years as these platforms increase in power - and we think that single-platform middleware providers can benefit by leveraging their experience and solutions across them." More information on the Middleware for Interactive Entertainment 2005 survey is available at the official Acacia Research Group website.