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Entertainment Middleware Market Remains Challenging
Acacia expects 11.9% five-year growth in market for middleware for interactive entertainment, but changing landscape still provides obstacles for vendors
Vancouver, WA - October 2, 2006 - The market for interactive entertainment middleware is set to grow from $718.4 million to nearly $1.3 billion over the next five years, according to the latest market study on interactive entertainment middleware from Acacia Research Group. The market remains volatile and risky, with competition from in-house solutions in the game and mobile sectors and deployment of OCAP- and MHP-based solutions facing ITV middleware vendors. The next five years may well be make-or-break for many suppliers.
“Game middleware providers continue to see fierce competition in the form of in-house solutions," said Christine Arrington, Senior Analyst at Acacia Research Group, "Meanwhile, the mobile middleware market is still in the early stages but these providers are going to feel the pinch of in-house competition as well; with handset and chipset vendors providing adequate free solutions. Finally, ITV middleware vendors are finally seeing the first real deployments of MHP, with OCAP on the horizon and must innovate to provide solutions much more robust and revenue generating than less expensive standards-based alternatives.”
Middleware for Interactive Entertainment: Growth by Category, 2006-2011 |
|
|
|
|
| ITV |
$400.0 |
$646.6 |
10.1% |
| Game |
$308.2 |
$538.2 |
11.8% |
| Mobile |
$10.2 |
$75.7 |
49.3% |
| Total |
$718.4 |
$1,260.5 |
11.9% |
Note: All figures, except percentages, are in millions.
Source: Middleware for Interactive Entertainment 2006. |
Copyright © 2006 Acacia Communications. All rights reserved. |
Third-party solutions currently account for about 25% of the total spending on game middleware and we expect to see healthy growth over the next five years - with sales rising from just under $79 million in 2006 to more than $108.4 million in 2011. Even so, in-house spending will rise even more quickly as developers build out in-house solutions for increasing platform complexity.
Mobile middleware makers are still struggling to develop long term viability in their business models, while contending with the trend for handset makers to offer content development technology to entice developers to create media for their products. Vendors must go above and beyond these free and inexpensive offerings while pinning down a licensing solution that makes sense in a market faced with limited per-title budgets.
ITV middleware accounts for the largest piece of the entertainment middleware pie but the threat of standards-based middleware is finally looming large with commercial MHP deployments and pending OCAP deployments. By 2011, standards-based solutions could be making a huge dent in the market for ITV middleware unless vendors can innovate.
About Middleware for Interactive Entertainment 2006
Middleware for Interactive Entertainment 2006 includes forecasts for the game platform, mobile, and interactive television middleware segments. The study outlines trends in the three categories and includes device forecasts for game consoles, smart phones, mobile media devices, digital set top boxes, and integrated digital televisions.
This market study (81 pp. 26 charts, 16 tables) is priced at $2,495 for electronic (PDF) and print (single copy). Site licenses are available for $3742.50 and include three printed copies, intranet posting privileges, and unlimited internal distribution. The study is available for purchase via the Acacia web site. The game platform, mobile, and interactive television segments are available for separate purchase if desired.
About Acacia
Acacia Research Group provides timely and accurate business intelligence to decision makers across the high technology industry - covering tools and middleware for interactive content creation, consumer entertainment and communications hardware, content distribution channels, and business models for content deployment.
Acacia's products and services include in-depth market studies, executive forums, periodicals, and custom consulting. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, WA. For more information please visit www.acaciarg.com.
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