The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday sketched a promising outlook for the digital game industry, with the sector's global production value expected to increase at an annual compounded rate of 23 percent to reach US$55.64 billion by 2008.
According to Huang Kuo-chun (黃國俊), head of a ministry program to promote the development of the nation's digital content industry, the scale of the global digital game market amounted to US$24.56 billion in 2004, up 10 percent from the previous year.
The market scale is likely to rise to US$36.14 billion this year, with video games expected to account for the largest share at US$18.32 billion, Huang said.
The markets for online and mobile phone games are expanding, which makes them the products with the greatest potential, he said.
The production value of online games is projected to reach US$6.92 billion this year. This is forecast to further jump to US$15.48 billion by 2008.
Meanwhile, the production value of mobile phone games is expected to amount to US$7.37 billion this year and to grow to US$13.63 billion by 2008, Huang said.
By region, the Asia-Pacific market was the largest for digital games, with a market scale amounting to US$9.43 billion in 2004. This accounted for 38 percent of the global market, he said.
The amount represents an increase of 12 percent compared with that of 2003, making the Asia-Pacific region the world's fastest-growing market for the digital game industry, Huang said.
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