While games with online components have become commonplace on the PS3 and Xbox 360, a new report from the research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDR) highlights exactly how important online is to developers, concluding that games with online components may bring in as much as double the profit a similar offline game might.
A overview of the report written by Reuters shows that games with online multiplayer bring in twice as much revenue, while games with an online component bring in 25 percent more than games with no online component at all.
The analysis involved 219 retail titles and 187 downloadable games. It found that 77 percent of Xbox 360 games have online features in some form, compared with 67 percent of PS3 titles, and 2 percent of Wii titles.
Source: Reuters