That's not what market research companies see.
Yep, the MMO market is sinking (oh wait, the subscription-based MMO market is indeed shrinking... replaced by B2P/F2P models).
Not that I don't agree that the current crop of MMO offerings are relatively lacking in features that would play to the perceived strengths of Massively Multiplayer. But that they have to change because the sky is falling is incorrect.
The thing about market research is you have the be very careful in understanding their methodology and nomenclature. Newzoo takes into account a lot of games we would
notcall MMOs, as MMOs. Like for example,
League of Legends is considered an MMO in this report.In fact League of Legends is the number 1 fastest growing
MMOin America (Did you guys know that?? LoL #1 MMO America!!!)
Also, many
App/Browser based persistent strategy "P2W" games are "MMOs". In fact, this awesome game,
Wizard101is the second fastest growing MMO in America. (World of Tanks is the fastest in Europe and it's high in the U.S. too.)
Now, does anyone here consider the above MMOs? Anyone? No (Well maybe Wizards 101)? Didn't think so.
I also covered this growth, though I admit I was nebulous in describing it....
the MMO space can continue to get it's fucking shit pushed in by tiny app games.
So yeah, I'll say again, if the MMO space wants to continue to get their shit pushed in by browser based, resource management games, or small arena Pay2Win games which will soon all be designed for tablet/phone play, then by all means, they are headed in the right direction.
But the actual MMO market that WE understand as MMOs? Shrinking.