Some trends in online gaming - A look at some data

We have been taking a look at some some technology and gaming trends by analysing Google search and news data since 2004.  Here are the results:

Software License v. Software-as-a-Service

 

There is clearly enormous interest in software services (or SaaS), which has been consistently outpacing the traditional software sales model in terms of interest.  SaaS is also outpacing traditional software implementations in terms of sales.  Why?  Businesses want safe, secure, on-demand and affordable software solutions.  Therefore SaaS, along with cloud computing, a technology megatrend fuelling SaaS, will continue to grow.

CRM v. Analytics

There has been a major shift in interest from traditional CRM software and activities to analytics i.e. statistics at speed, scale and simplicity, a topic we discuss in this whitepaper.  The 'one-size-fits-all' approach to marketing and consumer services is being replaced with more customised, personalised and relevant targeting and services.  Not only are companies benefiting from sales growth through the use of predictive analytics but also consumers are benefiting with more personalised and relevant services.  Analytics as a technology trend will continue to gain momentum as more organisations start leveraging data more intelligently.

Internet Gaming v. Social Gaming

There has been huge interest in social gaming in the past two years, and whilst Google searches for internet gaming still remain higher than for social gaming, the news volumes for social gaming have been considerably higher, reflecting the massive interest and growth in social media and the growing social gaming industry.

Online Poker v. FarmVille

Building on the last trend, it's interesting to see just how much interest FarmVille generated when it was launched in comparison to online poker, for example.  The only time that online poker news has matched that of FarmVille was in April 2011 following 'Black Friday', the US indictments against Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker (if you are interested in poker news then try following Stuart Hoegner and Kim Lund on Twitter).  It's also interesting to think about this data in terms of the product lifecycle of social games i.e. are they relatively short-lived, in that the data suggests that after an initial large spike, interest begins to tail off.  Google's data doesn't go back far enough for us to analyse consumer search and news data when online poker first launched however the comaprisons from the last 7 years provide interesting insight.