Forbes

“Instead of ending support of customers after they buy individual game titles, game companies now focus on building gamer communities and developing ongoing relationships with their customers,” Parks Associates research analyst and study author Pietro Macchiarella told Venturebeat. “The positive effect of this - ...read more

Last month Parks Associates forecast that revenues in the social gaming market will increase five-fold from 2010 to 2015, due in large part to advertising and sales of virtual items. Lady Gaga is hardly the first to leverage these platforms, the firm noted: McDonald’s and - ...read more

According to a 2010 survey by Parks Associates, more than 50 percent of Americans with Internet service look to their broadband provider as their first or second choice in solving their home computer-related technical issues. Additionally, 75 percent of those surveyed prefer to receive all of their technical support services from a single - ...read more

Arcades are dead, and with them dies the chance for most players to meet up in the real world. Sony has a solution: On Thursday it will begin offering up its PlayStation 3 as a virtual surrogate. Instead of clamoring around the newest cabinet, players can virtually congregate - ...read more

The 39-person team behind "Whirled" is best known for its online game "Puzzle Pirates." The massively multiplayer game amassed $4 million in revenue in 2007--primarily from the sale of virtual items like boots or parrots for players' pirate avatars. The - ...read more

Although there is no exact count of avatars, the industry expects their ranks to explode as the number of participants in 3D virtual worlds is projected to grow nearly fivefold to 33 million by 2013, according to Parks Associates analyst Michael Cai. And this doesn't even - ...read more

This is the future of virtual worlds and online games. Just a short one-time installation of a browser plug-in--similar to what is required to watch Flash videos on a site like YouTube--allows people to dive straight into a virtual world or game whenever they visit a - ...read more

SanDisk is also building technology platforms that will leverage SlotMusic's ability to sync up with servers through encrypted connections. A streaming subscription service like Rhapsody, which SanDisk has already partnered with for its line of Sansa music players, could - ...read more

The Dow plummeted below 9,000 points to a five-year low Thursday. Worldwide, economies are slowing and consumers are worried sick about their future.

Indeed, the number of registered and active users of Second Life, a virtual world that simulates real-world - ...read more

More than a year in the works, Google finally launched its in-game advertising platform Wednesday. Called AdSense for Games, the platform will offer advertisers access to millions of Web-based Flash games.

The in-game advertising market is small, scoring only $1 - ...read more