The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
iSuppli also predicts big changes in the “content side of the video-game market”, and as an example bring up the “merger between software game makers Activision and Vivendi Games to become Activision Blizzard” which may “presage further market consolidation”.
iSuppli explain that “Blizzard is the branch of Vivendi responsible for the World of Warcraft (WoW), the world’s largest Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), with more than 9.3 million subscribers”.
They say that “Activision already was on a path for growth with recent success with its Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises”, and now that this deal, “worth about $18.9 billion, has instantly created a new video-game software superpower that can compete with Electronic Arts (EA)”.
iSuppli say they believe “this deal could spur a wave of industry consolidation as smaller game title companies try to keep up with the giants in the industry. iSuppli would not be surprised to see future mergers or acquisitions in the game title space this year” – and neither would we.
Another potential spanner in the works is a re-entry into the games console market by Apple, who tried with the Pippin in the past, but failed dismally. Still, Apple have shown no fear in entering the music, movie and TV markets, and if they truly want to 'own' the home entertainment space, why not a games console, or at least a real push for games on the Mac platform, too?
So, my final take? 2007 was the golden age of games consoles, but the next few years are likely to see this turn into the platinum age of gaming and home entertainment, with no slow down in sight and the market growing by leaps and bounds, with plenty of surprises yet to come. Game on!
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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