In uncertain economic times, people may be searching for an attractive virtual escape to help them forget the woes of a real world.
Forbes.com recently ran an article highlighting the economic aspects of virtual worlds may actually receive a significant boost during rough economic times. The site Gaia Interactive and Habbo as examples of virtual worlds that are expecting a rise in traffic and microtransaction sales as the economy continues it’s downward spiral.
“As the ‘real world’ gets worse, virtual worlds get better,” Gaia Chief Executive Craig Sherman told Forbes.com in an e-mail. “As things get worse, people spend more time at movies or spend more time on a site like Gaia Online, which provides a relatively inexpensive respite from the offline world.”
Gaia, whose primary target market includes teens and twenty-somethings saw more than seven million unique visitors in September.
Another teen focused portal, Habbo does have concerns over falling ad sales, but 85% of the sites revenue is virtual goods, microtransaction sales driven. On average, the site’s 2.5 million US users spend around $18/month, and time on the site has doubled to around 40 minutes per session over the past year, says EVP Teemu Huuhtanen. Currently clocking in at approximately 10 million global users, Habbo is expecting to grow as the site begins offering new services and activities.
While not a free-to-play, microtransaction revenue model based title, EVE Online has seen over 30,000 new registrations and players since the beginning of the year. EVE’s on staff economist, Eyjo Gudmundsson expects to continue this growth patterns over the next six months, especially as cash strapped people look for cheaper entertainment alternatives. EVE is still holding firm to the subscription model at $14.95/month. While Gudmundsson cautions in the Forbes article that virtual worlds may fall victim to some real world economic frustrations, I’m only left to wonder if this statement has something to do with the fact that EVE is still only offering play based on a subscription fee, while both Gaia and Habbo offer free-to-play, microtransaction based models. This could be an interesting horse race to watch, and see who’s left standing at the finish line.
Michael Cai from Parks Associates also points out that registered and active users of Second Life have flattened out, it might have something to do with now ‘seasoned’ virtual world citizens are simply seeking out other virtual worlds to explore. Cai forecasts more and more corporations will begin using Second Life or custom 3D worlds in order to hold meetings and cut down on expensive travel costs.
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