Website GO attracts a quarter of Internet users

The latest study by ComScore shows that the number of visitors to global online game (GO) websites has increased by more than 17% in the past year. Currently this figure stands at about 217 million visitors.

The results of ComScore's research go against what John Riccitiello - Electronic Arts CEO - said in an interview on the Wall Street Journal on July 9.

' Users are getting bored playing games while games are getting harder and harder to play .'

Riccitiello's gloomy judgment about the computer game industry probably reflects the true status of Electronic Arts in the past. According to the company, the number of visitors to GO websites as of May 2007 was only 21.2 million. Meanwhile the number of the same period last year was 30.5 million.

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GO industry still has many potentials that cannot be fully exploited in an overnight time. That's why it can't be 'gone' so soon.

' Playing online games is now so popular. One in four people knows how to play online games , said Bod Ivins, ComScore European CEO. ' This means online game sites account for about a quarter of the world's web users. '

EA executives probably also overlooked a very noticeable point of the world GO industry today. It is the industry GO that is also beginning to adopt a software delivery model as an online service. This allows users to spend no more on investment costs for expensive games or having to download, install or maintain applications .

Popular GO sites include Yahoo Games (52.7 million visits in May), MSN Games (40.3 million) .

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